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THE 



PRO-SLAVERY ARGUMENT; 



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AS MAINTAINED BY THE MOST 



DISTINGUISHED WRITERS OF THE SOUTHERN STATES, 



CONTAINING THE 



SEVERAL ESSAYS, ON THE SUBJECT, 



CHANCELLOR HARPER, GOVERNOR HAMMOND, 
DR. SIMMS, and PROFESSOR DEW. 



CHARLESTON: 

WALKER, RICHARDS & CO 
1852. 



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HARPER ON SLAVERY 



The institution of domestic slavery exists over far the great- 
er portion of the inhabited earth. Until within a very few 
century it may be said to have existed over the whole earth 
at least m all those portions of it which had made any ad- 
vances towards civilization. We might safely conclude 'then, 
that ,t is deeply founded in the nature of man and the exigen- 
ces of human society. Yet, in the few countries in which it 
has been abol shed-claiming perhaps justly, to be farthest 
advanced m cmhzation and intelligence, but which have had 
the smallest opportunity of observing its true character and 
>•! 7 '? <^™nced as the most intolerable of social and 
poht.eal evils Its existence, and every hour of its continu- 
ance, >s regarded as the crime of the communities in which it 
is found. _ Even by those in the countries alluded to, who re- 
gard it w,th the most indulgence or the least abhorrence— 
who attribute no criminality to the present generation-who 
found ,t m ex.stence, and have not yet been able to devise 
the means of abolishing it, — It is pronounced a misfortune and 

finally fetal to the societies which admit it. This is no longer 
regarded as a subject of argument and investigation. The 
opinions referred to are assumed as settled, or the truth of 
hem as self-evident. If any voice is raised among ourselves 
to extenuate or to vindicate, it is unheard. The judgment is 
made up. AV e can have no hearing before the tribunal of 



HARPERS MEMOIR ON SLAVERY. 

the civilized world. Yet, on this very account, it is more im- 
portant that we, the inhabitants of the slaveholding States of 
America, insulated as we are, by this institution, and cut off, 
in some degree, from the communion and sympathies of the 
world by which we are surrounded, or with which we have 
intercourse, and exposed continually to their animadversions 
and attacks, should thoroughly understand this subject, and 
our strength and weakness in relation to it. If it be thus 
criminal, dangerous, and fatal ; and if it be possible to devise 
means of freeing ourselves from it, wo ought at once to set 
about the employing of those means. It would be the most 
wretched and imbecile fatuity, to shut our eyes to the im- 
pending dangers and horrors, and " drive darkling down the 
current of our fate," till we are overwhelmed in the final de- 
struction. If we are tyrants, cruel, unjust, oppressive, let us 
humble ourselves and repent in the sight of heaven, that the 
foul stain may be cleansed, and we enabled to stand erect as 
having common claims to humanity with our fellow-men. 

But if we are nothing of all this ; if we commit no injustice 
or cruelty ; if the maintenance of our institutions be essential 
to our prosperity, our character, our safety, and the safety of 
all that is dear to us, let us enlighten our minds and fortify 
our hearts to defend them. 

It is a somewhat singular evidence of the indisposition of 
the rest of the world to hear anything more on this subject, 
that perhaps the most profound, original, and truly philo- 
sophical treatise, which has appeared within the time of my 
recollection,* seems not to have attracted the slightest atten- 
tion out of the limits of the slaveholding States themselves. 
If truth, reason, and conclusive argument, propounded with 
admirable temper and perfect candor, might -be supposed to 

* President Dew's Review of the Virginia Debates on the subject of 
Slaverv. 



harper's memoir on slavery. 3 

have an effect on the minds of men, we should think this 
work would have put an end to agitation on the subject. The 

author has rendered inappreciable service to the South in en- 
lightening them on the subject of their own institutions, and 
turning back that monstrous tide of folly and madness which, 
if it had rolled on, would have involved his own great State 
along with the rest of the slaveholding States in a common 
ruin; But beyond these, he seems to have produced no effect 
whatever. The denouncers of Slavery, with whose produc- 
tions the press groan*, seems to be unaware of his existence — 
unaware that there is reason, to be encountered or argument 
to be answered. They assume that the truth is known and 
settled, and only requires to be enforced by denunciation. 

Another vindicator of the South has appeared in an indi- 
vidual who is among those that have done honor to Ameri- 
can literature.* With conclusive argument, and great force 
of expression, he has defended Slavery from the charge of in- 
justice or immorality, and shewn clearly the unspeakable 
cruelty and mischief which must result from any scheme of 
abolition. He does not live among slaveholders, and it can- 
not be said of him, as of others, that his mind is warped by 
interest, or his moral sense blunted by habit and familiarity 
with abuse. These circumstances, it might be supposed, 
would have secured him hearing and consideration. He 
seems to be equally unheeded, and the work of denunciation 
disdaining argument, still goes on. 

President Dew has shewn that the institution of Slavery is 
a principal cause of civilization. Perhaps nothing can bo 
more evident than that it is the sole cause. If anything can 
be predicated as universally true of uncultivated man, it is 
that he will not labor beyond what is absolutely necessary to 
maintain his existence. Labor is pain to those who are unac- 
* Paulding on Slavery. 



4 HARPER S MEMOIR ON 6LAVERY. 

customed to it, and the nature of man is averse to pain. 
Even with all the training, the helps and motives of civiliza- 
tion, we find that this aversion cannot be overcome in many 
individuals of the most cultivated societies. The coercion of 
Slavery alone is adequate to form man to habits of labor. 
Without it, there can be no accumulation of property, no pro- 
vidence for the future, no tastes for comfort or elegancies, 
which are the characteristics and essentials of civilization. He 
who has obtained the command of another's labor, first begins 
to accumulate and provide for the future, and the foundations 
of civilization are laid. We find confirmed by experience that 
which is so evident in theory. Since the existence of .man 
upon the earth, with no exception whatever, either of ancient 
or modern times, every society which has attained civiliza- 
tion, has advanced to it through this process. 

Will those who regard Slavery as immoral, or crime in 
itself, tell us that man was not intended for civilization, but to 
roam the earth as a biped brute ? That he was not to raise 
his eyes to heaven, or be conformed in his nobler faculties to 
the image of his Maker ? Or will they say that the Judge of 
all the earth has done wrong in ordaining the means by which 
alone that end can be obtained ? It is true that the Creator 
can make the wickedness as well as the wrath of man to 
praise him, and bring forth the most benevolent results from 
the most atrocious actions. But in such cases, it is the mo- 
tive of the actor alone which condemns the action. The act 
itself is good, if it promotes the good purposes of God, and 
would be approved by him, if that result only were intended. 
Do they not blaspheme the providence of God who denounce 
\?s wickedness and outrage, that which is rendered indispensa- 
ble to his purposes in the government of the world ? Or at 
what stage of the progress of society will they say that Sla- 
very ceases to be necessary, and its very existence becomes 



harper's memoir on slavery. 5 

sin and crime ? I am aware that such argument would liave 
little effect on those with whom it would be degrading to con- 
tend—who pervert the inspired writings— which in some 
parts expressly sanction Slavery, and throughout indicate 
most clearly that it is a civil institution, with which religion 
has no concern— with a shallowness and presumption not less 
flagrant and shameless than his, who would justify murder 
from the text, "and Phineas arose and executed judgment." 

There seems to be something in this subject which blunts 
the perceptions, and darkens and confuses the understandings 
and moral feelings of men. Tell them that, of necessity, in 
every civilized society, there must be an infinite variety of 
conditions and employments, from the most eminent and in- \^ 
tellectual, to the most servile and laborious ; that the negro 
race, from their temperament and capacity, arej^Harly 
smW Uo the situatio nwhich th^y^cnpy^and^^ 
in it than any corresponding class to be found in the world; 
prove mcOfttestibl y ^ h a trTTO^schenie of emancipation could be 
carried into effect without the most intolerable mischiefs and 
calamities to both master and slave, or without probably 
throwing a large and fertile portion of the earth's surface out 
of the pale of civilization— and you have done nothing. They 
reply, that whatever may be the consequence, you are bound 
to do right ; that man has a right to himself, and man can- 
not have property in man ; that if the negro race be natural- 
ly inferior in mind and character, they are not less entitled 
to the rights of humanity ; that if they are happy in their 
condition, it affords but the stronger evidence of their degra- 
dation, and renders them still more objects of commiseration. 
They repeat, as the fundamental maxim of our civil policy, 
that all men are born free and equal, and quote from our 
Declaration of Independence, "that men are endowed by 
1* 



HARPER'S MEMOIR ON SLAVERY. 

their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 

It is not the first time that I have had occasion to observe 
that men may repeat with the utmost confidence, some maxim 
or sentimental phrase, as self-evident or admitted truth, 
which is either palpably false, or to which, upon examination, 
it will be found that they attach no definite idea. Notwith- 
standing our respect for the important document which de- 
clared our independence, yet if any thing be found in it, and 
especially in what may be regarded rather as its ornament 
than its substance — false, sophistical or unmeaning, that re- 
spect should not screen it from the freest examination. 

All men are born free and equal. Is it not palpably near- 
er the truth to say that no man was ever born free, and that 
no two men were ever born equal ? Man is born in a state 
of the most helpless dependence on others. He continues 
subject to the absolute control of others, and remains without 
many of the civil and all of the political privileges of his so- 
ciety, until the period which the laws have fixed as that at 
which he is supposed to have attained the maturity of his 
faculties. Then inequality is further developed, and becomes 
infinite in every society, and under whatever form of govern- 
ment. Wealth and poverty, fame or obscurity, strength or 
weakness, knowledge or ignorance, ease or labor, power or 
subjection, mark the endless diversity in the condition of men. 

But we have not arrived at the profundity of the maxim. 
This inequality is, in a great measure, the result of abuses in 
the institutions of society. They do not speak of what exists, 
but of what ought to exist. Every one should be left at lib- 
erty to obtain all the advantages of society which he can com- 
pass, by the free exertion of his faculties, unimpeded by civil 
restraints. It may be said that this would not remedy the . 



evils of society which are complained of. The inequalities to 
which I have referred, with the misery resulting from them, 
would exist in fact under the freest and most popular form of 
government that man could devise. But what is the founda- 
tion of the bold dogma so confidently announced ? Females 
are human and rational beings. They may be found of bet- 
ter faculties, and better qualified to exercise political privileges, 
and to attain the distinctions of society, than many men ; yet 
who complains of the order of society by which they are ex- 
cluded from them? For I do not speak of the few who would 
desecrate them ; do violence to the nature which their Creator 
has impressed upon them ; drag them from the position which 
they necessarily occupy for the existence of civilized society, 
and in which they constitute its blessing and ornament — the 
only position which they have ever occupied in any human 
society — to place them in a situation in which they would be 
alike miserable and degraded. Low as we descend in com- 
bating the theories of presumptuous dogmatists, it cannot be 
necessary to stoop to this. A youth of eighteen may have 
powers which cast into the shade those of any of his more ad- 
vanced cotemporaries. He may be capable of serving or sa- 
ving his country, and if not permitted to do so now, the occa- 
sion may have been lost forever. But he can exercise no po- 
litical privilege, or aspire to any political distinction. It is 
said that, of necessity, society must exclude from some civil 
and political privileges those who are unfitted to exercise 
them, by infirmity, unsuitableness of character, or defect of 
discretion ; that of necessity there must be some general rule 
on the subject, and that any rule which can be devised will 
operate with hardship and injustice on individuals. This is 
all that can be said, and all that need be said. It is saying, 
in other words, that__t he privileges in cju gsji on aro -grr matter 
of natural right, but to be settled by convention, as the good 



harper's memoir on slavery. 



and safety of society may require. If society should disfran- 
chise individuals convicted of infamous crimes, would this he 
a n invasion of natural right? Yet this would not be justified 
on the score of their moral guilt, but that the good of society 
required or would be promoted by it. We admit the exist- 
ence of a moral law, binding on societies as on individuals. 
Society must act in good faith. No man, or body of men, has 
a right to inflict pain or privation on others, unless with a 
view, after full and impartial deliberation, to prevent a greater 
evil. If this deliberation be had, and the decision made in 
good faith, there can be no imputation of moral guilt. Has 
any politician contended that the very existence of govern- 
ments in which there are orders privileged by law, constitutes a 
violation of morality ; that their continuance is a crime, which 
men are bound to put an end to, without any consideration of 
the good or evil to result from the change ? Yet this is the 
natural inference from the dogma of the natural equality of 
men as applied to our institution of Slavery— an equality not 
to be invaded without injustice and wrong, and requiring to 
be restored instantly, unqualifiedly, and without reference to 
consequences. 

This is sufficiently common-place, but we are sometimes 
driven to common-place. It is no less a false and shallow, 
than a presumptuous philosophy, which theorizes on the af- 
fairs of men as of a problem to be solved by some unerring 
rule of human reason, without reference to the designs of a 
superior intelligence, so far as he has been pleased to indicate 
them, in their creation and destiny. Man is born to subjec- 
tion. ' Not only during infancy is he dependent, and under 
\the control of others; at all ages, it is the very bias of his 
nature, that the strong and the wise should control the weak 
and the ignorant. So it has been since the days of Nimrod. 
The existence of some form of slavery in all ages and coun- 



harper's memoir on slavery. 9 

t ries, is proof en ough of this. He is born to subjection as he 
is born in sin and ignorance. To make any considerable pro- 
gress in knowledge, the continued efforts of successive genera- 
tions, and the diligent training and unwearied exertions of the 
individual, are requisite. To make progress in moral virtue, 
not less time and effort, aided by superior help, are necessary ; 
and it is only by the matured exercise of his knowledge and 
his virtue, that he can attain to civil freedom. Of all things, 
the existence of civil liberty is most the result of artificial in- 
stitution. The prochyily-o f t he natural mfta us^tp_ domineer 
at tn h^ ""^gTyi finti, A noble result, indeed, but in the at- 
taining of which, as in the instances of knowledge and virtue, 
the Creator, for his own purposes, has set a limit beyond 
which we cannot go. 

But he who is most advanced in knowledge, is most sensi- 
ble of his own ignorance, and how much must forever be un- 
known to man in his present condition. As I have heard it 
expressed, the further you extend the circle of light, the wider 
is the horizon of darkness. He who has made the greatest 
progress in moral purity, is most sensible of the depravity, not 
only of the world around him, but of his own heart, and the 
imperfection of his best motives ; and this he knows that men 
must feel and lament so long as they continue men. So 
when the greatest progress in civil liberty has been made, the 
enlightened lover of liberty will know that there must remain 
much inequality, much injustice, much slavery, which no hu- 
man wisdom or virtue will ever be able wholly to prevent or 
redress. As I have before had the honor to say to this Socie- 
ty, the condition of our w T hole existence is but to struggle 
with evils — to compare them — to choose between them, and, 
so far as we can, to mitigate them. To say that there is evil 
in any institution, is only to say that it is human. 

And can we doubt but that this long discipline and labori- 



10 



ous process, by which men are required to work out the eleva- 
tion and improvement of their individual nature and their 
social condition, is imposed for a great and beuevolent end ? 
Our faculties are not adequate to the solution of the mystery, 
why it should be so ; but the truth is clear, that the world was 
not intended for the seat of universal knowledge, or goodness, 
or happiness, or freedom. 

Man has been endowed by his Creator with certain inalien- 
able rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
hap2)iness. What is meant by the inalienable right of liber- 
ty ? Has any one who has used the words ever asked himself 
this question ? Does it mean that a man has no right to ali- 
enate his own liberty — to sell himself and his posterity for 
slaves ? This would seem to be the more obvious meaning. 
When the word right is used, it has reference to some law 
which sanctions it, and would be violated by its invasion. It 
must refer either to the general law of morality, or the law of 
the country — the law of God or the" law of man. If the law 
of any country permitted it, it would of course be absurd to 
say that the law of that country was violated by such aliena- 
tion. If it have any meaning in this respect, it must mean 
that though the law of the country permitted it, the man 
would be guilty of an immoral act who should thus alienate 
his liberty. A fit question for schoolmen to discuss, and the 
consequences resulting from its decision as important as from 
any of theirs. Yet who will say that the man pressed by 
famine, and in prospect of death, would be criminal for such 
an act ? Self-preservation, as is truly said, is the first law of 
nature. High and peculiar characters, by elaborate cultiva- 
tion, may be taught to prefer death to slavery, but it would 
be folly to prescribe this as a duty to the mass of mankind. 

If any rational meaning can be attributed to the sentence 
I have quoted, it is this : — That the society, or the individu- 



harper's memoir on slavery. 11 

als who exercise the powers of government, are guilty of a 
violation of the law of God or of morality, when, by any law 
or public act, they deprive men of life or liberty, or restrain 
them in the pursuit of happiness. Yet every government 
does, and of necessity must, deprive men of life and liberty 
for offences against society. Restrain them in the pursuit of 
happiness ! Why all the laws of society are intended for 
nothing else but to restrain men from the pursuit of happiness, 
according to their own ideas of happiness or advantage — 
which the phrase must mean if it means any thing. And by 
what .right does society punish by the loss of life or liberty? 
Not on account of the moral guilt of the criminal — not by 
impiously and arrogantly assuming the prerogative of the 
Almighty, to dispense justice or suffering, according to moral 
desert. It is for its own protection — it is the right of self- 
defence. If there existed the blackest moral turpitude, which 
by its example or consequences, could be of no evil to society, 
government would have nothing to do with that. If an ac- 
tion, the most harmless in its moral character, could be dan- 
gerous to the security of society, society would have the per- 
fect right to punish it. If the possession of a black skin 
would be otherwise dangerous to society, society has the same 
right to protect itself by disfranchising the possessor of civil 
privileges, and to continue the disability to his posterity, if 
the same danger would be incurred by its removal. Society* 
inflicts these forfeitures for the security of the lives of its 
members ; it inflicts them for the security of their property, 
the great essential of civilization ; it inflicts them also for the 
protection of its political institutions, the forcible attempt to 
overturn which, has always been justly regarded as the great- 
est crime ; and who has questioned its right so to inflict ? 
" Man cannot have property in man" — a phrase as full of 
meaning as, " who slays fat oxen should himself be fat," 



12 harper's memoir on slavery. 

Certainly lie may, if the laws of society allow it, and if it be 
on sufficient grounds, neither he nor society do wrong. 

And is it by this — as we must call it, however recom- 
mended to our higher feelings by its associations — well-sound- 
ing, but unmeaning verbiage of natural equality and inalien- 
able rights, that our lives are to be put in jeopardy, our pro- 
perty destroyed, and our political institutions overturned or 
endangered ? If a people had on its borders a tribe of bar- 
barians, whom no treaties or faith could bind, and by whose 
attacks they were constantly endangered, against whom they 
could devise no security, but that they should be extermi- 
nated or enslaved ; would they not have the right to enslave 
them, and keep them in slavery so long as the same danger 
would be incurred by their manumission? If a civilized man 
and a savage were by chance placed together on a desolate 
island, and the former, by the superior power of civilization, 
would reduce the latter to subjection, would he not have the 
same right ? Would this not be the strictest self-defence ? I 
do not now consider, how far we can make out a similar case 
to justify our enslaving of the negroes. I speak to those who 
contend for inalienable rights, and that the existence of 
slavery always, and under all circumstances, involves injustice 
and crime. 

As I have said, we acknowledge the existence of a moral 
law. It is not necessary for us to resort to the theory which 
resolves all right into force. The existence of such a law is 
imprinted on the hearts of all human beings. But though 
its existence be acknowledged, the mind of man has hitherto 
been tasked in vain to discover an unerring standard of mo- 
rality. It is a common and undoubted maxim of morality, 
that you shall not do evil that good may come. You shall 
not do injustice or commit an invasion of the rights of others, 
for the sake of a greater ulterior good. But what is injus- 



harper's memoir on slavery. 13 

tice, and what are the rights of others ? And why are we 
not to commit the one or invade the others ? It is because it 
inflicts pain or suffering, present or prospective, or cuts them 
off from enjoyment which they might otherwise attain. The 
Creator has sufficiently revealed to us that happiness is the 
great end of existence, the sole object of all animated and 
sentient beings. To this he has directed their aspirations 
and efforts, and we feel that we thwart his benevolent pur- 
poses when we destroy or impede that happiness. This is the 
only natural right of man. All other fights result from thel/ 
conventions of society, and these, to be sure, we are not to 
invade, whatever good may appear to us likely to follow. 
Yet are we in no instance to inflict pain or suffering, or disturb 
enjoyment, for the sake of producing a greater good 1 Is the 
madman not to be restrained who would bring destruction on 
himself or others ? Is pain not to be inflicted on the child, 
when it is the only means by which he can be effectually 
instructed to provide for his own future happiness ? Is the 
surgeon guilty of wrong who amputates a limb to preserve 
life ? Is not the object of all penal legislation, to inflict suf- 
fering for the sake of greater good to be secured to society ? 

By what right is it that man exercises dominion over the V 
beasts of the field ; subdues them to painful labor, or deprives 
them of life for his sustenance or enjoyment? They are not 
rational beings. No, but they are the creatures of God, sen- 
tient beings, capable of suffering and enjoyment, and entitled 
to enjoy according to the measure of their capacities. Does 
not the voice of nature inform every one, that he is guilty of 
wrong when he inflicts on them pain without necessity or 
object ? If their existence be limited to the present life, it 
affords the stronger argument for affording them the brief 
enjoyment of which it is capable. It is because the greater 
good is effected ; not only to man but to the inferior animals 
2 



14 harper's memoir ott slavery. 

themselves. The care of man gives the boon of existence to 
myriads who would never otherwise have enjoyed it, and the 
enjoyment of their existence is better provided for while it 
lasts. It belongs to the being of superior faculties to judge of 
the relations which shall subsist between himself and inferior 
animals, and the use he shall make of them ; and he may 
justly consider himself, who has the greater capacity of enjoy- 
ment, in the first instance. Yet he must do this conscien- 
tiously, and no doubt, moral guilt has been incurred by the 
infliction of pain on these animals, with no adequate benefit 
to be expected. I do no disparagement to the dignity of 
human nature, even in its humblest form, when I say that on 
the very same foundation, with the difference only of circum- 
stance and degree, rests the right of the civilized and culti- 
vated man, over the savage and ignorant. It is the order of 
nature and of God, that the being of superior faculties and 
knowledge, and therefore of superior power, should control 
and dispose of those who are inferior. It is as much in the 
older of nature, that men should enslave each other, as that 
other animals should prey upon each other. I admit that he 
does this under the highest moral responsibility, and is most 
guilty if he wantonly inflicts misery or privation on beings 
more capable of enjoyment or suffering than brutes, without 
necessity or any view to the greater good which is to result. 
If we conceive of society existing without government, and 
that one man by his superior strength, courage or wisdom, 
could obtain the mastery of his fellows, he would have a per- 
fect right to do so. He would be morally responsible for the 
use of his power, and guilty if he failed to direct them so as 
to promote their happiness as well as his own. Moralists 
have denounced the injustice and cruelty which have been 
practised towards our aboriginal Indians, by which they nave 
been driven from their native seats and exterminated, and no 



harper's memoir on slavery. 15 

doubt with much justice. No doubt, much fraud and in- 
justice has been practised in the circumstances and the man- 
ner of their removal. Yet who has contended that civilized 
man had no moral right to possess himself of the country \ 
That he was bound to leave this wide and fertile continent, 
which is capable of sustaining uncounted myriads of a civi- 
lized race, to a few roving and ignorant barbarians ? Yet if 
any thing is certain, it is certain that there were no means by 
which he could possess the country, without exterminating or 
enslaving them. Savage and civilized man cannot live to- 
gether, and the savage can only be tamed by being enslaved 
or by having slaves. By enslaving alone could he have pre- 
served them.* And who shall take upon himself to decide 
that the more benevolent course, and more pleasing to God, 
was pursued towards them, or that it would not have been 
better that they had been enslaved generally, as they were in 
particular instances \ It is a refined philosophy, and utterly 
false in its application to general nature, or the mass of hu- 
man kind, which teaches that existence is not the greatest of 
all boons, and worthy of being preserved even under the most 
adverse circumstances. The strongest instinct of all animated 
beings sufficiently proclaims this. When the last red man 
shall have vanished from our forests, the sole remaining traces 
of his blood will be found among our enslaved population.] - 
The Afi'ican slave trade has" given, and will give, the boon of 
existence to millions and millions in our country, who would 
otherwise never have enjoyed it, and the enjoyment of their 
existence is better provided for while it lasts. Or if, for the 
rights of man over inferior animals, we are referred to revc- 

* 1 refer to President Dew on this subject. 

t It is not uncommon, especially in Charleston, to .see slaves, after 
many descents and having mingled their blood with the Africans, pos- 
; Indian hair aud features. 



16 harper's memoir on slavert. 

lation, which pronounces — "ye shall have dominion over the 
beasts of the field, and over the fowls of the air," we refer to 
the same, which declares not the less explicitly — 

" Both the bondmen and bondmaids which thou shalt 
have, shall be of the heathen that are among you. Of them 
shall you buy bondmen and bondmaids." 

" Moreover of the children of strangers that do sojourn 
among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that 
are with you, which they begot in your land, and they shall 
be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheri- 
tance for your children after you, to inherit them by posses- 
sion. They shall be your bondmen forever." 

In moral investigations, ambiguity is often occasioned by 
confounding the intrinsic nature of an action, as determined 
by its consequence, with the motives of the actor, involving 
moral guilt or innocence. If poison be given with a view to 
destroy another, and it cures him of disease, the poisoner is 
guilty, but the act is beneficent in its results. If medicine be 
given with a view to heal, and it happens to kill, he who ad- 
ministered it is innocent, but the act is a noxious one. If 
they who begun and prosecuted the slave trade, practised hor- 
rible cruelties and inflicted much sufTering — as no doubt they 
did, though these have been much exaggerated — for merely 
selfish purposes, and with no view to future good, they were 
morally most guilty. So far as unnecessary cruelty was prac- 
tised, the motive and the act were alike bad. But if we 
could be sure that the entire effect of the trade has been to 
produce more happiness than would otherwise have existed, 
we must pronounce it good, and that it has happened in the 
ordering of God's providence, to whom evil cannot be im- 
puted. Moral guilt has not been imputed to Las Casas, and 
if the importation of African slaves into America, had the 
effect of preventing more suffering than it inflicted, it was 



harper's memoir on slavery. 17 

good, both in the motive and the result, I freely admit that, 
it is hardly possible to justify morally, those who begun and 
carried on the slave trade. No speculation of future good to y/ 
be brought about, could compensate the enormous amount of 
evil it occasioned. 

If we should refer to the common moral sense of mankind, 
as determined by their conduct in all ages and countries, for 
a standard of morality, it would seem to be in favor of 
Slavery. The will of God, as determined by utility, would 
be an infallible standard, if we had an unerring measure of 
utility. The utilitarian philosophy, as it is commonly under- 
stood, referring only to the animal wants and employments, 
and physical condition of man, is utterly false and degrading. 
If a sufficiently extended definition be given to utility, so as to 
include every thing that may be a source of enjoyment or suf- 
fering, it is for the most part useless. IIow can you compare 
the pleasures resulting from the exercise of the understanding, 
the taste and the imagination, with the animal enjoyments of 
the senses — the gratification derived from a fine poem with 
that from a rich banquet ? IIow are we to weigh the pains 
and enjoyments of one man highly cultivated and of great 
sensibility, against those of many men of blunter capacity for 
enjoyment or suffering? And if we could determine with 
certainty in what utility consists, we are so short-sighted with 
respect to consequences — the remote results of our best con- 
sidered actions are so often wide of our anticipations, or con- 
trary to them, that we should still be very much in the dark. 
But though we cannot arrive at absolute certainty with re- 
spect to the utility of actions, it is always fairly matter of 
argument. Though an imperfect standard, it is the best we 
have, and perhaps the Creator did not intend that we should 
arrive at perfect certainty with regard to the morality of many 
actions. If, after the most careful examination of conse- 
2* 



18 harper's memoir on slavery. 

quences that we are able to make, with due distrust of our- 
selves,vwe impartially, and in good faith, decide for that 
which appears likely to produce the greatest good, we are 
free from moral guilt. And I would impress most earnestly, 
that with our imperfect and limited faculties, and short-sight- 
ed as we are to the future, we can rarely, very rarely indeed, 
be justified in producing considerable present evil or suffering, 
in the expectation of remote future good — if indeed this can 
ever be justified. 

In considering this subject, I shall not regard it in the first 
instance in reference to the present position of the slavehold- 
ing States, or the difficulties which lie in the way of their 
emancipating their slaves, but as a naked, abstract question — 
whether it is better that the institution of praedial and domes- 
tic Slavery should, or should not, exist in civilized society. 
And though some of my remarks may seem to have such a 
tendency, let me not be understood as taking upon myself to 
determine that it is better that it should exist. God forbid 
that the responsibility of deciding such a question should 
ever be thrown on me or my countrymen. But this I will 
say, and not without confidence, that it is in the power of no 
human intellect to establish the contrary proposition — that it 
is better it should not exist. This is probably known but to 
one being, and concealed from human sagacity. 

There have existed in various ages, and we now see exist- 
ing in the world, people in every stage of civilization, from 
the most barbarous to the most refined. Man, as I have said, 
is not born to civilization. He is born rude and ignorant. 
But it will be, I suppose, admitted that it is the design of his 
Creator that he should attain to civilization: that religion 
should be known, that the comforts and elegancies of life 
should be enjoyed, that letters and arts should be cultivated ; 
in short, that there should be the greatest possible develop- 



harper's memoir on slavery. 19 

ment of moral and intellectual excellence. It can hardly be 
necessary to say any thing of those who have extolled the 
superior virtues and enjoyments of savage life — a life of phy- 
sical wants and sufferings, of continual insecurity, of furious 
passions and depraved vices. Those who have praised savage 
life, are those who have known nothing of it, or who have 
become savages themselves. But as I have said, so far as 
reason or universal experience instruct us, the institution of 
Slavery is an essential process in emerging from savage life.^. 
It must then produce good, and promote the designs of the 
Creator. 

I add further, that Slavery anticipates the benefits of civi- 
lization, and retards the evils of civilization. The former 
part of this proposition has been so fully established by a 
writer of great power of thought — though I fear his practical 
conclusions will be found of little value — that it is hardly ne- 
cessary to urge it.* Property — the accumulation of capital, 
as it is commonly called — is the first element of civilization. 
But to accumulate, or to use capital to any considerable ex- 
tent, the combination of labor is necessary. In early stages 
of society, when people are thinly scattered over an extensive 
territory, the labor necessary to extensive works cannot be 
commanded. Men are independent of each other. Having 
the command of abundance of land, no one will submit to be 
employed in the service of his neighbor. No one, therefore, 
can employ more capital than he can use with his own hands, 
or those of his family, nor have an income much beyond 
the necessaries of life. There can, therefore, be little leisure 

* The author of '■ England and America." We do, however, most 
indignantly repudiate his conclusion, that we are bound to submit to a 
tariff of protection, as an expedient for retaining our slaves, "the 
force of the whole Union being required to preserve Slavery, to keep 
down the slaves." 



20 harper's memoir on slavery. 

for intellectual pursuits, or means of acquiring tlie comforts or 
elegancies of life. It is hardly necessary to say, however, that 
if a man has the command of slaves, he may combine labor, 
and use capital to any required extent, and therefore accumu- 
late wealth. He shows that no colonies have been success- 
fully planted without some sort of Slavery. So we find the 
fact to be. It is only in the slaveholding States of our Con- 
federacy, that wealth can be acquired by agric ulture — which 
i s the general em plo yment of our wholft cou ntry. Among 
us, we know that there is no one, however humble his begin- 
ning, who, with persevering industry, intelligence, and orderly 
and virtuous habits, may not attain to considerable opulence. 
So far as wealth has been accumulated in the States which do 
not possess slaves, it has been in cities by the pursuits of 
commerce, or lately, by manufactures. Bu^Jhe products of 
sl ave labor furnish more than two-thirds of j hematcrials of 

rmr forpi o-n Commerce, w l 11 r ' h ^'^ Wlnst.ry ttfjJTnsft St,n,t.ps is 

ejxi^loy^d in transporting and exchanging..;- and among the 
slaveholding Stateslsl:ol)e'1ouncl"the great market for all the 
productions of their industry, of whatever kind. The pros- 
perity of those States, tliej^^%, ^miLilifi. civilization of thei r 
J cities7lia^^^aa==fof^e^most Twi.cie ated by the exist ence of 
Slavery. Even in the cities, but for a class of population, 
which our institutions have marked as servile, it would be 
scarcely possible to preserve the ordinary habitudes of civilized 
life, by commanding the necessary menial and domestic ser- 
vice. 

Every stage of human society, from the most barbarous to 
the most refined, has its own peculiar evils to mark it as the 
condition of mortality ; and perhaps there is none but omni- 
potence who can say in which the scale of good or evil most 
preponderates. We need say nothing of the evils of savage 
life. There is a state of society elevated somewhat above it, 



harper's memoir on slavery. 21 

which is to be found in some of the more thinly peopled por- 
tions of our own country — the rudest agricultural state — 
which is thus characterized by the author to whom I have re- 
ferred : " The American of the back woods has often been 
described to the English as grossly ignorant, dirty, unsocial, 
delighting in rum and tobacco, attached to nothing but his 
rifle, adventurous, restless, more than half savage. Deprived 
of social enjoyments or excitements, he has recourse to those 
of savage life, and becomes (for in this respect the Americans 
degenerate) unfit for society." This is no very inviting pic- 
ture, which, though exaggerated, we know not to be without 
likeness. The evils of such a state, I suppose, will hardly be 
thought compensated by unbounded freedom, perfect equal- 
ity, and ample means of subsistence. 

But let us take another stage in the progress — which to 
many will appear to offer all that is desirable in existence, and 
realize another Utopia. Let us suppose a state of society in 
which all shall have property, and there shall be no great in- 
equality of property — in which society shall be so much con- 
densed as to afford the means of social intercourse, without 
being crowded, so as to create difficulty in obtaining the 
means of subsistence — in which every family that chooses 
may have as much land as will employ its own hands, while 
others may employ their industry in forming such products as 
it may be desirable to exchange with them. Schools are 
generally established, and the rudiments of education univer- 
sally diffused. Religion is taught, and every village has its 
church, neat, though humble, lifting its spire to heaven. 
Here is a situation apparently the most favorable to happiness. 
I say apparently, for the greatest source of human misery is 
not in external circumstances, but in men themselves — in 
their depraved inclinations, their wayward passions and per- 
verse wills. Here is room for all the petty competition, the 



22 harper's memoir ox slavery. 

envy, hatred, malice and dissimulation, that torture the heart 
in what may be supposed the most sophisticated states of 
societ}' ; and though less marked and offensive, there may be 
much of the licentiousness. 

But apart from this, in such a condition of society, if there 
is little suffering, there is little high enjoyment. The even 
flow of life forbids the high excitement which is necessary 
for it. If there is little vice, there is little place for the emi- 
nent virtues, which employ themselves in controlling the dis- 
orders and remedying the evils of society, which, like war and 
revolution, call forth the highest powers of man, whether for 
good or for evil. If there is little misery, there is little room 
for benevolence. Useful public institutions we may suppose 
to be created, but not such as are merely ornamental. Ele- 
gant arts can be little cultivated, for there are no means to 
reward the artists ; nor the higher literature, for no one will 
have leisure or means to cultivate it for its own sake. Those 
who acquire what may be called liberal education, will do so 
in order to employ it as the means of their own subsistence 
or advancement in a profession, and literature itself will par- 
take of the sordidness of trade. In short, it is plain that in 
such a state of society, the moral and intellectual faculties 
cannot be cultivated to their highest perfection. 

But whether that which I have described be the most desi- 
rable state of society or no, it is certain that it cannot conti- 
nue. Mutation and progress is the condition of human affairs. 
Though .retarded for a time by extraneous or accidental cir- 
cumstances, the wheel must roll on. The tendency of popu- 
lation is to become crowded, increasing the difficulty of obtain- 
ing subsistence. There will be some without any property 
except the capacity for labor. This they must sell to those 
who have the means of employing them, thereby swelling 
the amount of their capital, and increasing inequality. The 



harper's memoir 0>7 slavery. 23 

process still r j;<-^-< on. The number of laborers increases until 
there is a difficulty in obtaining* employment. Then compe- 
tition is established. The remuneration of the laborer be- 
comes gradual ly less and less ; a larger and larger proportion 
of the product of his labor goes to swell the fortune of the 
capitalist ; inequality becomes still greater and more invidious, 
until the process ends in the establishment of just such a state 
of things, as the same author describes as now existing in 
England. After a most imposing picture of her greatness 
and resources ; of her superabounding capital, and all-perva- 
ding industry and enterprise ; of her public institutions for 
purposes of art, learning and benevolence; her public im- 
provements, by which intercourse is facilitated, and the conve- 
nience of man subserved; the conveniences and luxuries of 
life enjoyed by those who are in possession of fortune, or have 
profitable employments; of all, in short, that places her at 
the head of modern civilization, he proceeds to give the re- 
verse of the picture. And here I shall use his own words : 
" The laboring class compose the bulk of the people ; the 
great body of the people ; the vast majority of the people — 
these are the terms by which English writers and speakers 
usually describe those whose only property is their labor." 

" Of comprehensive words, the two most frequently used in 
English politics, are distress and pauperism. After these, of 
expressions applied to the state of the poor, the most common 
are vice and misery, wretchedness, sufferings, ignorance, de- 
gradation, discontent, depravity, drunkenness, and the increase 
of crime ; with many more of the like nature." 

He goes on to give the details of this inequality and 
wretchedness, in terms calculated to sicken and appal one to 
whom the picture is new. That he has painted strongly we 
may -uppose ; but there is ample corroborating testimony, if 
such were needed, that the representation is substantially just. 



24 harper's memoir on slavery. 

Where so much misery exists, there must of course be much 
discontent, and many have been disposed to trace the sources 
of the former in vicious legislation, or the structure of govern- 
ment ; and the author gives the various schemes, sometimes 
contradictory, sometimes ludicrous, which projectors have 
devised as a remedy for all this evil to which flesh is heir. 
That ill judged legislation may have sometimes aggravated 
the general suffering, or that its extremity may be mitigated 
by the well directed efforts of the wise and virtuous, there 
can be no doubt. One purpose for which it has been permit- 
ted to exist is, that it may call forth such efforts, and awaken 
powers and virtues which would otherwise have slumbered for 
want of object. But remedy there is none, unless it be to 
abandon their civilization. This inequality, this vice, this 
misery, this Slavery, is the price of England's civilization. 
They sutler the lot of humanity. But perhaps we may be 
permitted humbly to hope, that great, intense and widely 
spread as this misery undoubtedly is in reality, it may yet be 
less so than in appearance. "We can estimate but very, very 
imperfectly the good and evil of individual condition, as of 
different states of society. Some unexpected solace arises to 
alleviate the severest calamity. Wonderful is the power of 
custom, in making the hardest condition tolerable ; the most 
generally wretched life has circumstances of mitigation, and 
moments of vivid enjoyment, of w 7 hich the more seemingly 
happy can scarcely conceive ; though the lives of individuals 
be shortened, the aggregate of existence is increased ; even 
the various forms of death accelerated by want, familiarized 
to the contemplation, like death to the soldier on the field of 
battle, may become scarcely more formidable than what we 
are accustomed to regard as nature's ordinary outlets of exis- 
tence. If we could perfectly analyze the enjoyments and suf- 
ferings of the most happy, and the most miserable man, we 



harper's memoir on slavery. 25 

should perhaps be startled to find the difference so much less 
than our previous impressions had led us to conceive. But it 
is not for us to assume the province of omniscience. The par- 
ticular theory of the author quoted, seems to be founded on 
an assumption of this sort — that there is a certain stage in 
the progress, when there is a certain balance between the de- 
mand for labor, and the supply of it, which is more desirable 
than any other — when the territory is so thickly peopled that 
all cannot own land and cultivate the soil for themselves, but 
a portion will be compelled to sell their labor to others ; still 
leaving, however, the wages of labor high, and the laborer 
independent. It is plain, however, that this would in like 
manner partake of the good and the evil of other states of so- 
ciety. There would be less of equality and less rudeness, 
than in the early stages ; less civilization, and less suffering, 
than in the latter. 

It is the competition for employment, which is the source 
of this misery of society, that gives rise to all excellence in 
art and knowledge. When the demand for labor exceeds the 
supply, the services of the most ordinarily qualified laborer 
will be eagerly retained. When the supply begins to exceed, 
and competition is established, higher and higher qualifications 
will be required, until at length when it becomes very intense, 
none but the most consummately skilful can be sure to be em- 
ployed. Nothing but necessity can drive men to the exer- 
tions which are necessary so to qualify themselves. But it is 
not in arts, merely mechanical alone, that this superior excel- 
lence will be required. It will be extended to every intellec- 
tual employment ; and though this may not be the effect in 
the instance of every individual, yet it will fix the habits and 
character of the society, and prescribe every where, and in 
every department, the highest possible standard of attainment. 

But how is it that the existence of Slavery, as with us, will 
3 



26 harper's memoir on slavery. 

Retard the evils of civilization? Very obviously. It is the 
intense competition of civilized life, that gives rise to the 
excessive cheapness of labor, and the excessive cheapness of 
labor is the cause of the evils in question. Slave labor can 
never be so cheap as what is called free labor. Political econo- 
mists have established as the natural standard of wages in a 
fully peopled country, the value of the laborer's existence. I 
shall not stop to inquire into the precise truth of this proposi- 
tion. It certainly approximates the truth. Where competi- 
tion is intense, men will labor for a bare subsistence, and less 
than a competent subsistence. The employer of free laborers 
obtains their services during the time of their health and vigor, 
without the charge of rearing them from infancy, or support- 
in* them in sicluiess or old age. This charge is imposed on 
the employer of slave labor, who, therefore, pays higher wa- 
ges, and cuts off the principal source of misery-the wants 
and sufferings of infancy, sickness, and old age. Laborers too 
will be less skilful, and perform less work-enhancing the 
price of that sort of labor. The poor laws of England are an 
attempt-but an awkward and empirical attempt-to supply 
the place of that which we should suppose the feelings of every 
human heart would declare to be a natural obligation-that 
he who has received the benefit of the laborer's services dur- 
ing his health and vigor, should maintain him when he be- 
comes unable to provide for his own support. They answer 
their purpose, however, very imperfectly, and are unjustly and 
unequally imposed. There is no attempt to apportion the 
burden according to the benefit received-and perhaps there 
could be none. This is one of the evils of their condition. 
In periods of commercial revulsion and distress, like the 
- present, the distress, in countries of free labor, falls principally 
on the laborers. In those of slave labor, it falls almost ex- 
clusively on the employer. In the former, when a business 



harper's memoir on slavery. 27 

becomes unprofitable, the employer dismisses his laborers or 
lowers their wages. But with us, it is the very period at 
which we are least able to dismiss our laborers ; and if we 
would not suffer a further loss, we cannot reduce their wages. 
To receive the benefit of the services of which they are capa- 
ble, we must provide for maintaining their health and vigor. 
In point of fact, we know that this is accounted among the ne- 
cessary expenses of management. If the income of every * 
planter of the Southern States were permanently reduced one- 
half, or even much more than that, it would not take one jot 
from the support and comforts of the slaves. And this can 
never be materially altered, until they shall become so unpro- 
fitable that Slavery must be of necessity abandoned. It is 
probable that the accumulation of individual wealth will never 
be carried to quite so great an extent in a slaveholding coun- 
try, as in one of free labor ; but a consequence will be, that 
there will be less inequality and less suffering. 

Servitude is the condition of civilization. It was decreed, 
when the command was given, " be fruitful, and multiply and 
replenish the earth, and subdue it," and when it was added, 
"in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." And what 
human being shall arrogate to himself the authority to pro- 
nounce that our form of it is worse in itself, or more displeas- 
ing to God, than that which exists elsewhere ? Shall it be 
said that the servitude of other countries grows out of the exi- 
gency of their circumstances, and therefore society is not re- 
sponsible for it ? But if we know that in the progress of 
things it is to come, would it not seem the part of wisdom 
and foresight, to make provision for it, and thereby, if we can, 
mitigate the severity of its evils ? But the fact is not so. Let 
any one who doubts, read the book to which I have several 
times referred, and he may be satisfied that it was forced upon 
us by the extremest exigency of circumstances, in a struggle 



28 harper's memoir on slavery. 

for very existence. Without it, it is doubtful whether a white 
man would be now existing on this continent — certain, that 
if there were, they would be in a state of the utmost destitu- 
tion, weakness, and misery. It was forced on us by necessity, 
and further fastened upon us by the superior authority of the 
mother country. I, for one, neither deprecate nor resent the 
gift. Nor did we institute Slavery. The Africans brought to 
us had been, speaking in the general, slaves in their own 
country, and only underwent a change of masters. In the 
countries of Europe, and the States of our Confederacy, in 
which Slavery has ceased to exist, it was abolished by positive 
legislation. If the order of nature has been departed from, 
and a forced and artificial state of things introduced, it has 
been, as the experience of all the world declares, by them and 
not by us. 

That there are great evils in a society where Slavery exists, 
and that the institution is liable to great abuse, I have already 
said. To say otnerwise, would be to say that they were not 
human. But the whole of human life is a system of evils and 
compensations. We have no reason to believe that the com- 
pensations with us are fewer, or smaller in proportion to the 
evils, than those of any other condition of society. Tell me 
of an evil or abuse ; of an instance of cruelty, oppression, licen- 
tiousness, crime or suffering, and I will point out, and often in 
five fold degree, an equivalent evil or abuse in countries where 
Slavery does not exist. 

Let us examine without blenching, the actual and alleged 
evils of Slavery, and the array of horrors which many suppose 
to be its universal concomitants. It is said that the slave is 
out of the protection of the law; that if the law purports to 
protect him in life and limb, it is but imperfectly executed ; 
that he is still subject to excessive labor, degrading blows, or 
any other sort of torture, which a master pampered and bru- 



29 

talized by the exercise of arbitrary power, may think proper 
to inflict; he is cut off from the opportunity of intellectual, 
moral, or religious improvement, and even positive enactments 
are directed against his acquiring the rudiments of knowl- 
edge ; he is cut off forever from the hope of raising his condi- 
tion in society, whatever may be his merit, talents, or virtues, 
and therefore deprived of the strongest incentive to useful and 
praiseworthy exertion ; his physical degradation begets a cor- 
responding moral degradation : he is without moral principle, 
and addicted to the lowest vices, particularly theft and false- 
hood ; if marriage be not disallowed, it is little better than a 
state of concubinage, from which results general licentiousness, 
and the want of chastity among females — this indeed is not 
protected by law, but is subject to the outrages of brutal lust ; 
both sexes are liable to have their dearest affections violated ; 
to be sold like brutes; husbands to be torn from wives, chil- 
dren from parents ; — t his is the picture comm only presented 
by t he denounc ers of Slavery. . 

""It is a somewhat singular fact that when there existed in • 
our State no law for punishing the murder of a slave, other 
than a pecuniary fine, there were, I will venture to say, at 
least ten murders of freemen, for one murder of a slave. Yet 
it is supposed they are less protected, or less secure than their 
masters. Why they are protected by their very situation in 
society, and therefore less need the protection of law. With 
any other person than their master, it is hardly possible for 
them to come into such sort of collision as usually gives rise 
to furious and revengeful passions ; they offer no temptation 
to the murderer for gain ; against the master himself, they 
have the security of his own interest, and by his superintend- 
ence and authority, they are protected from the revengeful 
passions of each other. I am by no means sure that the cause 
of humanity has been served by the change in jurisprudence, 
3* 



30 harper's memoir on slavery. 

which has placed their murder on the same footing with that 
of a freemen. The change was made in subserviency to the 
opinions and clamor of others who were utterly incompetent 
to form an opinion on the subject; and a wise act is seldom 
the result of legislation in this spirit. From the fact which I 
have stated, it is plain that they less need protection. Juries 
are, therefore, less willing to convict, and it may sometimes 
happen that the guilty will escape all punishment. Security 
is one of the compensations of their humble position. We 
challenge the comparison, that with us there have been fewer 
murders of slaves, than of parents, children, apprentices, and 
other murders, cruel and unnatural, in society where slavery 
does not exist. 

But short of life or limb, various cruelties maybe practised 
as the passions of the master may dictate. To this the same 
reply has been often given — that they are secured by the mas- 
ter's interest. If the state of Slavery is to exist at all, the 
^master must have, and ought to have, such power of punish- 
ment as will compel them to perform the duties of their sta- 
tion. And is not this for their advantage as well as his? No 
human being can be contented, who does not perform the 
duties of his station. Has the master any temptation to go 
beyond this? If he inflicts on him such punishment as will 
permanently impair his strength, he inflicts a loss on himself, 
and so if he requires of him excessive labor. Compare the 
labor required of the slave, w r ith those of the free agricultural 
or manufacturing laborer in Europe, or even in the more 
thickly peopled portions of the non-slaveholding States of our 
Confederacy — though these last are no fair subjects of com- 
parison — they enjoying, as I have said, in a great degree, the 
advantages of Slavery along with those of an early and sim- 
ple state of society. Read the English Parliamentary reports, 
on the condition of the manufacturing operatives, and the 



harper's memoir on slavery. 31 

children employed in factories. And such, is the impotence 
of man to remedy the evils which the condition of his exist- 
ence has imposed on him, that it is much to be doubted 
whether the attempts by legislation to improve their situa- 
tion, will not aggravate its evils. They resort to this exces- 
sive labor as a choice of evils. If so, the amount of their 
compensation will be lessened also with the diminished 
labor ; for this is a matter which legislation cannot regulate. 
Is it the part of benevolence then to cut them off even from 
this miserable liberty of choice? Yet would these evils 
exist in the same degree, if the laborers were the pro- 
perty of the master — having a direct interest in preserving 
their lives, their health and strength ? Who but a drivelling 
fanatic has thought of the necessity of protecting domestic 
animals from the cruelty of their owners ? And yet are not 
great and wanton cruelties practised on these animals ? Com- 
pare the whole of the cruelties inflicted on slaves throughout 
our Southern country, with those elsewhere, inflicted by igno- 
rant and depraved portions of the community, on those whom 
the relations of society put into their power — of brutal hus- 
bands on their wives ; of brutal parents — subdued against the 
strongest instincts of nature to that brutality by the extremi- 
ty of their misery — on their children ; of brutal masters on 
apprentices. And if it should be asked, are not similar cruel- 
ties inflicted, and miseries endured, in your society ? I answer, 
in no comparable degree. The class in question are placed 
under the control of others, who are interested to restrain 
their excesses of cruelty or rage. Wives are protected from 
their husbands, and children from their parents. And this is 
no inconsiderable compensation of the evils of our system ; 
and would so appear, if we could form any conception of the 
immense amount of misery which is elsewhere thus inflicted. 
The other class of society, more elevated in their position, are 



j 



32 harper's memoir on slavery. 

also (speaking of course in the general) more elevated in cha- 
racter, and more responsible to public opinion. 

But besides the interest of their master, there is another 
security against cruelty. The relation of master and slave, 
when there is no mischievous interference between them, is, as 
the experience of all the world declares, naturally jone of kind- 
ness. As tojjie^act, we should be held interested witnesses, 
. hiy^w>^ppeal to universal nature. Is it not natural that a 
man should be attached to that which is his own, and which 
has contributed to his convenience, his enjoyment, or his vani- 
ty ? This is felt even towards animals and inanimate objects. 
How much more towards a being of superior intelligence and 
usefulness, who can appreciate our feelings towards him, and 
return them ? Is it not natural that we should be interested 
in that which is dependent on us for protection and support ? 
Do not men everywhere contract kind feelings towards their 
dependants? Is it not natural that men should be more at- 
tached to those whom they have long known — whom, perhaps, 
they have reared or been associated with from infancy — than to 
one with whom their connexion has been casual and tempo- 
rary ? What is there in our atmosphere or institutions, to 
produce a perversion of the general feelings of nature ? To 
be sure, in this as in all other relations, there is frequent cause 
of offence or excitement — on one side, for some omission of 
duty, on the other, on account of reproof or punishment in- 
flicted. But this is common to the relation of parent and 
child ; and I will venture to say, that if punishment be justly 
inflicted — and there is no temptation to inflict it unjustly — it 
is as little likely to occasion permanent estrangement or re- 
sentment as in that case. Slaves are perpetu al chfl jjrpn. It 
is not the common nature of man, unless it be depraved by 
his own misery, to delight in witnessing pain. It is more 
grateful to behold contented and cheerful beings, than sullen 



33 



and wretched ones. That men are sometimes wayward, de- 
praved and brutal, we know. That atrocious and brutal cru- 
elties have been perpetrated on slaves, and on those who were 
not slaves, by such wretches, we also know. But that the 
institution of Slavery has a natural tendency to form such a 
character, that such crimes are more common, or more aggra- 
vated than in other states of society, or produce among us 
less surprise and horror, we utterly deny, and challenge the 
comparison. Indeed, I have little hesitation in saying, that 
if full evidence could be obtained, the comparison would re- 
sult in our favor, and that the tendency of Slavery is rather 
to humanize than to brutalize. 

The accounts of travellers in oriental countries, give a very 
favorable representation of the kindly relations which exist 
between the master and slave ; the latter being often the 
friend, and sometimes the heir of the former. Generally, how- 
ever, especially if they be English travellers — if they say any 
thing which may seem to give a favorable complexion to Sla- 
very, they think it necessary to enter their protest, that they 
shall not be taken to give any sanction to Slavery as it exists 
in America. Yet human nature is the same in all countries. 
There are very obvious reasons why in those countries there 
should be a nearer approach to equality in their manners. 
The master and slave are often of cognate races, and therefore 
tend more to assimilate. There is, in fact, less inequality in 
mind and character, where the master is but imperfectly civil- 
ized. Less labor is exacted, because the master has fewer 
motives to accumulate. But is it an injury to a human be- 
ing, that regular, if not excessive labor, should be required of 
him ? The primeval curse, with the usual benignity of provi- 
dential contrivance, has been turned into the solace of an ex- 
istence that would be much more intolerable without it. If 
they labor less, they are much more subject to the outrages of 



34 harper's memoir on slavery. 

capricious passion. If it were put to the choice of any human 
being, would he prefer to be the slave of a civilized man, or 
of a barbarian or semi-barbarian ? But if the general tenden- 
cy of the institution in those countries is to create kindly rela- 
tions, can it be imagined why it should operate differently in 
this ? It is true, as suggested by President Dew — with the 
exception of the ties of close consanguinity, it forms one of the 
most intimate relations of society. And it will be more and 
more so, the longer it continues to exist. The harshest fea- 
tures of Slavery were created by those who were strangers to 
Slavery — who supposed that it consisted in keeping savages in 
subjection by violence and terror. The severest laws to be 
found on our statute book, were enacted by such, and such are 
still found to be the severest masters. As society becomes 
settled, and the wandering habits of our countrymen altered, 
there will be a larger and larger proportion of those who were 
reared by the owner, or derived to him from his ancestors, 
and who therefore will be more and more intimately regard- 
ed, as forming a portion of his family. 

It is true that the slave is driven to labor by stripes ; and if 
the object of punishment be to produce obedience or reforma- 
tion, with the least permanent injury, it is the best method of 
punishment. But is it not intolerable, that a being formed in 
the image of his Maker^shouldjbe degraded by bloivs ? This 
is One of the perversions of mind and fe eling, tn ivhk*h--J .shall 
have~fl£g ^iuii agalTTtojeier ? Such punishment would be de- 

\ grading to a freeman, who had the thoughts and aspirations of 
a freeman. In general, it is not degrading to a slave, nor is 

1 it felt to be so. The evil is the bodily pain. Is it degrading 
to a child ? Or if in any particular instance it would be so 
felt, it is sure not to be inflicted — -unless in thos e rare case s 
whicJi-can&titute^he startling and eccentric evils, from which 
no s ociety is exempt, and against which no institutions. of so- 
ciety can provide. 



35 

The slave is cut off from the means of intellectual, moral^ 
and religious improvement, and in consequence his moral cha- 
racter becomes depraved, and he addicted to degrading vices. \ 
The slave receives such instruction as qualifies him to dis- * 
charge the duties of his particular station. The Creator did 
not intend that every individual human being should be hio-h- 
ly cultivated, morally and intellectually, for, as we have seen, 
he has imposed conditions on society which would render this 
impossible. There must be general mediocrity, or the high- 
est cultivation must exist along with ignorance, vice, and de- 
gradation. But is there in the aggregate of society, less op- 
portunity for intellectual and moral cultivation, on account of 
the existence of Slavery ? We must estimate institutions from 
their aggregate of good or evil. I refer to the views which I 
have before expressed to this society. It is by the existence 
of Slavery, exempting so large a portion of our citizens from 
the necessity of bodily labor, that we have a greater propor- 
tion than any other people, who have leisure for intellectual \j 
pursuits, and the means of attaining a liberal education. If 
we throw away this opportunity, we shall be morally respon- 
sible for the neglect or abuse of our advantages, and shall 
most unquestionably pay the penalty. But the blame will 
rest on ourselves, and not on the character of our institu- 
tions. 

I add further, notwithstanding that equality seems to be 
the passion of the day, if, as Providence has evidently decreed, 
there can be but a certain portion of intellectual excellence in 
any community, it is better that it should be unequally divi- 
ded. It is better that a part should be fully and highly culti- 
vated, and the rest utterly ignorant. To constitute a society, 
a variety of offices must be discharged, from those requiring 
but the lowest degree of intellectual power, to those requiring 
the very highest, and it should seem that the endowments 



36 



ought to be apportioned according to the exigencies of the 
situation. In the course of human affairs, there arise difficul- 
ties which can only be comprehended or surmounted by the 
strongest native power of intellect, strengthened by the most 
assiduous exercise, and enriched with the most extended 
knowledge — and even these are sometimes found indequate 
to the exigency. The first want of society is — leaders. Who 
shall estimate the value to Athens, of Solon, Aristides, The- 
mistocles, Cymon, or Pericles ? If society have not leaders 
qualified, as I have said, they will have those who w T ill lead 
them blindly to their loss and ruin. Men of no great native 
power of intellect, and of imperfect and superficial knowledge, 
are the most mischievous of all — none are so busy, meddling, 
confident, presumptuous, and intolerant. The whole of society 
receives the benefit of the exertions of a mind of extraordina- 
ry endowments. Of all communities, one of the least desira- 
ble, w r ould be that in which imperfect, superficial, half-educa- 
tion should be universal. The first care of a state which re- 
gards its own safety, prosperity and honor, should be, that 
when minds of extraordinary power appeal-, to whatever de- 
partment of knowledge, art or science, their exertions may be 
directed, the means should be provided of their most consum- 
mate cultivation. Next to this, that education should be as 
widely extended as possible. 

Odium has been cast upon our legislation, on account of its 
forbidding the elements of education to be communicated to 
slaves. But, in truth, what injury is done to them by this ? 
He who works during the day with his hands, does not read 
in intervals of leisure for his amusement, or the improvement 
of his mind — or the exceptions are so very rare, as scarcely to 
need the being provided for. Of the many slaves whom I 
have known capable of reading, I have never known one to 
read any thing but the Bible, and this task they impose on 



harper's memoir on slavery. 37 

themselves as matter of duty. Of all methods of religious in- 
struction, however, this, of reading for themselves, would be . 
the most inefficient — their comprehension is defective, and 
the employment is to them an unusual and laborious one. 
There are but very few who do not enjoy other means more 
effectual for religious instruction. There is no place of wor- 
ship opened for the white population, from which they are 
excluded. I believe it a mistake, to say that the instructions 
there given are not adapted to their comprehension, or calcu- 
lated to improve them. If they are given as they ought to 
be — practically, and without pretension, and are such as are 
generally intelligible to the free part of the audience, compre- 
hending all grades of intellectual capacity, — they will not be 
unintelligible to slaves. I doubt whether this be not better 
than instruction, addressed specially to themselves — which 
they might look upon as a device of the master's, to make 
them more obedient and profitable to himself. Their minds, 
generally, show a strong religious tenden cy, and they are fond 
of assuming the office o f religious instructors to e achoffie'r ; 
and perhaps their religious notions are not mucfTmore ex- 
travagant than those of a large portion of the free population 
of our country. I am not sure that there is a much smaller 
proportion of them, than of the free population, who make 
some sort of religious profession. It is certainly the master's 
interest that they should have proper religious sentimentsl 
and if he fails in his duty towards them, we may be sure that \ 
the consequences will be visited not upon them, but upon 
him. 

If there were any chance of their elevating their rank andv / 
condition in society, it might be matter of hardship, that they * 
should be debarred those rudiments of knowledge which open 
the w T ay to further attainments. But this they know cannot 
be, and that further attainments would be useless to them. 
4 



33 harper's memoir on slavery. 

Of the evil of this, I shall speak hereafter. A knowledge of 
reading, writing, and the elements of arithmetic, is conveni- 
ent and important to the free laborer, who is the transactor 
of his own affairs, and the guardian of his own interests— but 
of what use would they>-4o4he-slave ? These alone do not 
elevate the mind or character, if such elevation were desirable. 
If we estimate their morals according to that which should 
be the standard of a free man's morality, then I grant they 
are degraded in morals— though by no means to the extent 
which'those who are unacquainted with the institution seem 
to suppose. We justly suppose, that the Creator will require 
of man the performance of the duties of the station in which 
his providence has placed him, and the cultivation of the vir- 
tues which are adapted to their performance; that he will 
make allowance for all imperfection of knowledge, and the 
absence of the usual helps and motives which lead to self- 
correction and improvement. The degradation of morals re- 
late principally to loose notions of honesty, leading to petty 
thefts ; to falsehood and to licentious intercourse between the 
sexes.' Though with respect even to these, I protest against 
the opinion which seems to be elsewhere entertained, that they 
are universal, or that slaves, in respect to them, might not 
well bear a comparison with the lowest laborious class of other 
countries. But certainly there is much dishonesty leading to 
petty thefts. It leads, however, to nothing else. They have 
ro contracts or dealings which might be a temptation to 
fraud, nor do I know that their characters have any tendency 
that way. They are restrained by the constant, vigilant, and 
interested superintendence which is exercised over them, from 
the commission of offences of greater magnitude— even if they 
Avere disposed to them— which I am satisfied they are not. 
frothing is so rarely heard of, as an atrocious crime commit- 
ted by 1 slave ; especially since they have worn off the savage 



harper's memoir on slavery. 39 

character which their progenitors brought with them from 
Africa. Their offences are confined to petty depredations, 
principally for the gratification of their appetites, and these 
for reasons already given, are chiefly confined to the property 
of their owner, which is most exposed to them. They could 
make no use of a considerable booty, if they should obtain it. 
It is plain that this is a less evil to society in its consequences 
and example, than if committed by a freeman, who is master 
of his own time and actions. With reference to society then, 
the offence is less in itself — and may we not hope that it is 
less in the sight of God ? A slave has no hope that by a 
course of integrity, he can materially elevate his condition in 
society, nor can his offence materially depress it, or affect his 
means of support, or that of his family. Compared to the 
freeman, he has no character to establish or to lose. He has 
not been exercised to self-government, and being without in- 
tellectual resources, can less resist the solicitations of appetite. 
Theft in a freeman is a crime ; in a slave, it is a vice. I re- 
collect to have heard it said, in reference to some question of 
a slave's theft which was agitated in a Court, " Courts of Jus- 
tice have no more to do with a slave's stealing, than with his 
lying — that is a matter for the domestic forum. 1 ' It was truly 
said — the theft of a slave is no offence against society. Com- 
pare all the evils resulting from this, with the enormous 
amount of vice, crime, and depravity, which in an European, 
or one of our Northern cities, disgusts the moral feelings, and 
render life and p'roperty insecure. So with respect to his 
falsehood. I have never heard or observed, that slaves have 
any peculiar proclivity to falsehood, unless it be in denying or 
concealing their own offences, or those of their fellows. I have 
never heard of falsehood told by a slave for a malicious pur- 
pose. Lies of vanitj^ are sometimes told, as among the weak 
and ignorant of other conditions. Falsehood is not attributed 



40 harper's memoir on slavery. 

to an individual charged with an offence before a Court of 
Justice, who pleads not guilty — and certainly the strong- temp- 
tation to escape punishment, in the highest degree extenuates, 
if it does not excuse, falsehood told by a slave. If the object 
be to screen a fellow slave, the act bears some semblance of 
fidelity, and perhaps truth could not be told without breach 
of confidence. I know not how to characterize the falsehood 
of a slave. 

It has often been said by the denouncers of Slavery, that 
marriage does not exist among slaves. It is difficult to un- 
derstand this, unless wilful falsehood were intended. We 
know that marriages are contracted ; may be, and often are, 
solemnized with the forms usual among other classes of socie- 
ty, and often faithfully adhered to during life. The law has 
not provided for making those marriages indissoluble, nor 
could it do so. If a man abandons his wife, being without 
property, and being both property themselves, he cannot be 
required to maintain her. If lie abandons his wife, and lives 
in a state of concubinage with another, the law cannot punish 
him for bigamy. It may perhaps be meant that the chastity 
of wives is not protected by law from the outrages of violence* 
I answer, as with respect to their lives, that they are protect- 
ed by manners, and their position. Who ever heard of such 
outrages being offered? At least as seldom, I will venture to 
say, as in other communities of different forms of polity. One 
reason doubtless may be, that often there is no disposition to 
resist. Another reason also may be, that there is little temp- 
tation to such violence, as there is so large a proportion of 
this class of females who set little value on chastity, and af- 
ford easy gratification to the hot passions of men. It might 
be supposed, from the representations of some writers, that a 
slaveholding country was one wide stew for the indulgence of 
unbridled lust. Particular instances of intemperate and 



harper's memoir on - slavery. 41 

shameless debauchery are related, which may perhaps he 
true, and it is left to be inferred that this is the universal state 
of manners. Brutes and shameless debauchees there are in 
every country ; we know that if such things are related as 
general or characteristic, the representation is false. Who 
would argue from the existence of a Col. Chartres in England, 
or of some individuals who might, perhaps, be named in other 
portions of this country, of the horrid dissoluteness of man- 
ners occasioned by the want of the institution of Slavery ? Yet 
the argument might be urged quite as fairly, and really it 
seems to me with a little more justice — for there such depra- 
vity is attended with much more pernicious consequences. 
Yet let us not deny or extenuate the truth. It is true that in 
this respect the morals of this class are very loose, (by no 
means so universally so as is often supposed,) and that the 
passions of men of the superior caste, tempt and find gratifi- 
cation in the easy chastity of the females. This is evil, and to 
be remedied, if we can do so, without the introduction of 
greater evil. But evil is incident to every condition of socie- 
ty, and as I have said, we have only to consider in which in- 
stitution it most predominates. 

Compare these prostitutes of our country, (if it is not in- 
justice to call them so,) and their condition with those of 
other countries — the seventy thousand prostitutes of London, 
or of Paris, or the ten thousand of New- York, or our other 
Northern cities. Take the picture given of the first from the 
author whom I have before quoted. " The laws and customs 
of England conspire to sink this class of English women into 
a state of vice and misery below that which necessarily be- 
longs to their condition. Hence their extreme degradation 
their troopers' oaths, their love of gin, their desperate reck- 
lessness, and the shortness of their miserable lives." 

" English women of this class, or rather girls, for few of 
4* 



42 harper's memoir on slavery. 

them live to be women, die like sheep with the rot ; so fast 
that soon there would be none left, if a fresh supply were not 
obtained equal to the number of deaths. But a fresh supply 
is always obtained without the least trouble ; seduction easily 
keeps pace with prostitution or mortality. Those that die are, 
like factory children that die, instantly succeeded by new com- 
petitors for misery and death." There is no hour of a sum- 
mer's or a winter's night, in which there may not be found in 
the streets a ghastly wretch, expiring under the double tor- 
tures of disease and famine. Though less aggravated in its 
features, the picture of prostitution in New-York or Philadel- 
phia would be of like character. 

In such communities, the unmarried woman who becomes 
a mother, is an outcast from society — and though sentimen- 
talists lament the hardship of the case, it is justly and neces- 
sarily so. She is cut off from the hope of useful and profita- 
ble employment, and driven by necessity to further vice. Her 
misery, and the hopelessness of retrieving, render her despe- 
rate, until she sinks into every depth of depravity, and is pre- 
pared for every crime that can contaminate and infest society. 
She has given birth to a human being, who, if it be so unfor- 
tunate as to survive its miserable infancy, is commonly educa- 
ted to a like course of vice, depravity, and crime. 

Compare with this the female slave under similar circum- 
stances. She is not a less useful member of society than be- 
fore. If shame be attached to her conduct, it is such shame 
as would be elsewhere felt for a venial impropriety. She has 
not impaired her means of support, nor materially impaired 
her character, or lowered her station in society ; she has done 
no great injury to herself, or any other human being. Her 
offspring is not a burden but an acquisition to her owner; his 
support is provided for, and he is brought up to usefulness ; if 
the fruit of intercourse with a freeman, his condition is, per- 



HARPERS MEMOIR ON SLAVERY. 43 

haps, raised somewhat above that of his mother. Under 
these circumstances, with imperfect knowledge, tempted by 
the strongest of human passions — unrestrained by the mo- 
tives which operate to restrain, but are so often found insuffi- 
cient to restrain the conduct of females elsewhere, can it be 
matter of surprise that she should so often yield to the temp- 
tation ? Is not the evil less in itself, and in reference to socie- 
ty — much less in the sight of God and man ? As was said of 
theft — the want of chastity, which among females of other 
countries is sometimes vice, sometimes crime — among the free 
of our own, much more aggravated ; among slaves, hardly de- 
serves a harsher term than that of weakness. I have heard 
of complaint made by a free prostitute, of the greater counte- 
nance and indulgence shown by society towards colored per- 
sons of her profession, (always regarded as of an inferior and 
servile class, though individually free,) than to those of her 
own complexion. The former readily obtain employment ; 
are even admitted into families, and treated with some de- 
gree of kindness and familiarity, while any approach to inter- 
course with the latter is shunned as contamination. The dis- 
tinction is habitually made, and it is founded on the unerr- 
ing instinct of nature. The colored prostitute is, in fact, a far 
less contaminated and depraved being. Still many, in spite 
of temptation, do preserve a perfectly virtuous conduct, and I 
imagine it hardly ever entered into the mind of one of these, 
that she was likely to be forced from i ' - authority or . 10- 
lence. 

It may be asked, if we have no prostitutes from the free 
class of society among ourselves. I answer, in no assignable 
proportion. With general truth, it might be said, that there 
are none. When such a case occurs, it is among the rare 
evils of society. And apart from other and better reasons, 
which we believe to exist, it is plain that it must be so, from 



44 harper's memoir ox slavery. 

the comparative absence of temptation. Our brothels, com- 
parative^ very few — and these should not be permitted to exist 
at all — are filled, for the most part, by importations from the 
cities of our confederate States, where Slavery does not exist. 
In return for the benefits which they receive from our Slavery, 
along with tariffs, libels, opinions moral, religious, or political 
— they furnish us also with a supply of thieves and prosti- 
tutes. Never, but in a single instance, have I heard of an 
imputation on the general purity of manners, among the free 
females of the slaveholding States. Such an imputation, how- 
ever, and made in coarse terms, we have never heard here — 
here where divorce was never known — where no Court was 
ever polluted by an action for criminal conversation with a 
wife — where it is related rather as matter of tradition, not 
unmingled with wonder, that a Carolinian woman of educa- 
tion and family, proved false to her conjugal faith — an impu- 
tation deserving only of such reply as self-respect would for- 
bid us to give, if respect for the author of it did not. And 
can it be doubted, that this purity is caused by, and is a com- 
pensation for the evils resulting from the existence of an en- 
slaved class of more relaxed morals ? 

It is mostly the warm passions of youth, which give rise to 
licentious intercourse. But I do not hesitate to say, that the 
intercourse which takes place with enslaved females, is less 
depraving in its effects, than when it is carried on with fe- 
males of their own caste. In the first place, as like attracts 
like, that which is unlike repels ; and though the strength of 
passion be sufficient to overcome the repulsion, still the at- 
traction is less. He feels that he is connecting himself with 
one of an inferior and servile caste, and that there is some- 
thing of degradation in the act. The intercourse is generally 
casual ; he does not make her habitually an associate, and is 
less likely to receive any taint from her habits and manners. 



HARPER'S MEMOIR ON" SLAVERY. 45 

He is less liable to those extraordinary fascinations, with 
which worthless women sometimes entangle their victims, to 
the utter destruction of all principle, worth and vigor of cha- 
racter. The female of his own race offers greater allurements. 
The haunts of vice often present a show of elegance, and vari- 
ous luxury tempts the senses. They are made an habitual 
resort, and their inmates associates, till the general character 
receives a taint from the corrupted atmosphere. Not only 
the practice is licentious, but the understanding is sophistica- 
ted ; the moral feelings are bewildered, and the boundaries of 
virtue and vice are confused. Where such licentiousness very 
extensively prevails, society is rotten to the heart. 

But is it a small compensation for the evils attending the 
relation of the sexes among the enslaved class, that they have 
universally the opportunity of indulging the first instinct of 
nature, by forming matrimonial connexions? What painful 
restraint — what constant effort to struggle against the strong- 
est impulses, are habitually practised elsewhere, and by other 
classes ? And they must be practised, unless greater evils 
would be encountered. On the one side, all the evils of vice, 
with the miseries to which it leads — on the other, a marriage 
cursed and made hateful by want — the sufferings of children, 
and agonizing apprehensions concerning their future fate. Is 
it a small good that the slave is free from all this ? He 
knows that his own subsistence is secure, and that his children 
will be in as good a condition as himself. To a refined and 
intellectual nature, it may not be difficult to practise the re- 
straint of which I have spoken. But the reasoning from such 
to the great mass of mankind, is most fallacious. To these, 
the supply of their natural and physical wants, and the indul- 
gence of the natural domestic affections, must, for the most 
part, afford the greatest good of which they are capable. To 
the evils which sometimes attend their matrimonial connex- 



46 



ions, arising from their looser morality, slaves, for obvious 
reasons, are comparatively insensible. I am no apologist of 
vice, nor would I extenuate the conduct of the profligate and 
unfeeling, who would violate the sanctity of even these en- 
gagements, and occasion the pain which such violations no 
doubt do often inflict. Yet such is the truth, and we cannot 
make it otherwise. We know that a woman's having been 
before a mother, is very seldom indeed an objection to her 
being made a wife. I know perfectly well how this will be 
regarded by a class of reasoners or declaimers, as imposing a 
character of deeper horror on the whole system ; but still, I 
will say, that if they are to be exposed to the evil, it is mercy 
that the sensibility to it should be blunted. Is it no compen- 
sation also for the vices incident to Slavery, that they are, to 
a great degree, secured against the temptation to greater 
crimes, and more atrocious vices, and the miseries which at- 
tend them ; against their own disposition to indolence, and 
the profligacy which is its common result ? 

But if they are subject to the vices, they have also the vir- 
tues of slaves. Fidelity — often proof against all temptation — 
even death itself — an eminently cheerful and social temper — 
what the Bible imposes as a duty, but which might seem an 
equivocal virtue in the code of modern morality — submission 
to constituted authority, and a disposition to be attached to, 
as well as to respect those, whom they are taught to regard 
as superiors. They may have all the knowledge which will 
make them useful in the station in which God has been pleased 
to place them, and may cultivate the virtues which will ren- 
der them acceptable to him. But what has the slave of any 
country to do with heroic virtues, liberal knowledge, or ele- 
gant accomplishments ? It is for the master ; arising out of 
his situation — imposed on him as duty — dangerous and dis- 
graceful if neglected — to compensate for this, by his own more 



47 

assiduous cultivation, of the more generous virtues, and libe- 
ral attainments. 

It has been supposed one of the great evils of Slavery, that 
it affords the slave no opportunity of raising himself to a 
higher rank in society, and that he has, therefore, no induce- 
ment to meritorious exertion, or the cultivation of his faculties. 
The indolence and carelessness of the slave, and the less pro- 
ductive quality of his labor, are traced to the want of such 
excitement. The first compensation for this disadvantage, is 
his security. If he can rise no higher, he is just in the same 
degree secured against the chances of falling lower. It has 
been sometimes made a question whether it were better for 
man to be freed from the perturbations of hope and fear, or 
to be exposed to their vicissitudes. But I suppose there could 
be little question with respect to a situation, in which the fears 
must greatly predominate over the hopes. And such, I ap- 
prehend, to be the condition of the laboring poor in countries 
where Slavery does not exist. If not exposed to present suf- 
fering, there is continual apprehension for the future — for 
themselves — for their children — of sickness and want, if not 
of actual starvation. They expect to improve their circum- 
stances ! Would any person of ordinary candor, say that 
there is one in a hundred of them, who does not well know, 
that with all the exertion he can make, it is out of his power 
materially to improve his circumstances \ I speak not so 
much of menial servants, who are generally of a superior 
class, as of the agricultural and manufacturing laborers. They 
labor with no such view. It is the instinctive struggle to pre- 
serve existence, and when the superior efficiency of their labor 
over that of our slaves is pointed out, as being animated by a 
free man's hopes, might it not well be replied — it is because 
they labor under a sterner compulsion. The laws interpose 
no obstacles to their raising their condition in society. 'Tis a 



48 

great boon — but as to the great mass, they know that they 
never will be able to raise it — and it should seem not very 
important in effect, whether it be the interdict of law, or im- 
posed by the circumstances of the society. One in a thousand 
is successful. But does his success compensate for the suffer- 
ings of the many who are tantalized, baffled, and tortured in 
vain attempts to attain a like result? If the individual be 
conscious of intellectual power, the suffering is greater. Even 
where success is apparently attained, he sometimes gains it 
but to die — or with all capacity to enjoy it exhausted — worn 
out in the struggle with fortune. If it be true that the Afri- 
can is an inferior variety of the human race, of less elevated 
character, and more limited intellect, is it not desirable that 
the inferior laboring class should be made up of such, who 
will conform to their condition without painful aspirations 
and vain strua;o;les ? 

/ The slave is certainly liable to be sold. But, perhaps, it 
vmay be questioned, whether this is a greater evil than the lia- 
bility of the laborer, in fully peopled countries, to be dismissed 
by his employer, with the uncertainty of being able to obtain 
employment, or the means of subsistence elsewhere. With 
us, the employer cannot dismiss his laborer without providing 
him with another employer. His means of subsistence are 
secure, and this is a compensation for much. He is also lia- 
ble to be separated from wife and child — though not more 
frequently, that I am aware of, than the exigency of their 
condition compels the separation of families among the labor- 
ing poor elsewhere — but from native character and tempera- 
ment, the separation is much less severely felt. And it is one 
of the compensations, that he may sustain these relations 
without suffering a still severer penalty for the indulgence. 

The love of liberty is a noble passion — to have the free, 
uncontrolled disposition of ourselves, our words and actions- 



harper's memoir on slavery. 49 

But alas ! it is one in which we know that a large portion of 
the human race can never be gratified. It is mockery, to say 
that the laborer any where has such disposition of himself — 
though there may be an approach to it in some peculiar, and 
those, perhaps, not the most desirable, states of society. But 
unless he be properly disciplined and prepared for its enjoy- 
ment, it is the most fatal boon that could be conferred — fatal 
to himself and others. If slaves have less freedom of action 
than other laborers, which I by no means admit, they are 
saved in a great degree from the responsibility of self-govern- 
ment, and the evils springing from their own perverse wills. 
Those who have looked most closely into life, and know how 
great a portion of human misery is derived from these sources 
— the undecided and wavering purpose — producing ineffectu- 
al exertion, or indolence with its thousand attendant evils — 
the wayward conduct — intemperance or profligacy — will most 
appreciate this benefit. The line of a slave's duty is marked 
out with precision, and he has no choice but to follow it. He 
is saved the double difficulty, first of determining the proper 
course for himself, and then of summoning up the energy 
which will sustain him in pursuing it. 

If some superior power should impose on the laborious poor 
of any other country — this as their unalterable condition — 
you shall be saved from the torturing anxiety concerning 
your own future support, and that of your children, which 
now pursues you through life, and haunts you in death — you 
shall be under the necessity of regular and healthful, though 
not excessive labor — in return, you shall have the ample sup- 
ply of your natural wants — you may follow the instinct of 
nature in becoming parents, without apprehending that this 
supply will fail yourselves or your children — you shall be 
supported and relieved in sickness, and in old age, wear out 
the remains of existence among familiar scenes and accustom- 
5 



50 harper's memoir on slavery. 

ed associates, without being driven to beg, or to resort to the 
hard and miserable charity of a work-house— you shall of ne- 
cessity be temperate, and shall have neither the temptation 
nor opportunity to commit great crimes, or practice the more 
destructive vices— how inappreciable would the boon be 
thought ! And is not this a very near approach to the con- 
dition of our slaves ? The evils of their situation they but 
lightly feel, and would hardly feel at all, if they were not 
seduously instructed into sensibility. Certain it is, that if 
their fate were at the absolute disposal of a council of the 
most enlightened philanthropists in Christendom, with unlim- 
ited resources, they could place them in no situation so favora- 
ble to themselves, as that which they at present occupy. But 
whatever good there may be, or whatever mitigation of evil, 
it is worse than valueless, because it is the result-of Slavery. 

I am aware, that however often answered, it is likely to be 
repeated again and again — how can that institution be tolera- 
ble, by which a large class of society is cut off from the hope 
of improvement in knowledge; to whom blows are not de- 
grading ; theft no more than a fault; falsehood and the want 
of chastity almost venial, and in which a husband or parent 
looks with comparative indifference, on that which, to a free- 
man, would be the dishonor of a wife or child ? 

But why not, if it produces the greatest aggregate of good ? 
Sin and ignorance are only evils, because they lead to misery. 
It is not our institution, but the institution of nature, that in 
the progress of society a portion of it should be exposed to 
want, and the misery which it brings, and therefore involved 
in ignorance, vice, and depravity. In anticipating some of 
the good, we also anticipate a- portion of the evil of civiliza- 
tion. But we have it in a mitigated form. The want and 
the misery are unknown ; the ignorance is less a misfortune, 
because the being is not the guardian of himself, and partly 



harper's memoir on slavery. 51 

on account of that involuntary ignorance, the vice is less vice 
— less hurtful to man, and less displeasing to God. 

There is something in this word Slavery which seems to 
partake of the qualities of the insane root, and distempers the 
minds of men. That which would be true in relation to one 
predicament, they misapply to another, to which it has no ap- 
plication at all. Some of the virtues of a freeman would be 
the vices of slaves. To submit to a blow, would be degra- 
ding to a freeman, because he is the protector of himself. It 
is not degrading to a slave — neither is it to a priest or wo- 
man. And is it a misfortune that it should be so ? The free- 
man of other countries is compelled to submit to indignities 
hardly more endurable than blows — indignities to make the 
sensitive feelings shrink, and the proud heart swell ; and this 
very name of freeman gives them double rancor. If when a 
man is born in Europe, it were certainly foreseen that he was 
destined to a life of painful labor — to obscurity, contempt, 
and privation — would it not be mercy that he should be rear- 
ed in ignorance and apathy, and trained to the endurance of 
the evils he must encounter ? It is not certainly foreseen as 
to any individual, but it is foreseen as to the great mass of 
those born of the laboring poor ; and it is for the mass, not 
for the exception, that the institutions of society are to pro- 
vide. Is it not better that the character and intellect of the 
individual should be suited to the station which he is to occu- 
py ? Would you do a benefit to the horse or the ox, by 
giving him a cultivated understanding or fine feelings ? So 
far as the mere laborer has the pride, the knowledge, or the 
aspirations of a freeman, he is unfitted for his situation, and 
must doubly feel its infelicity. If there are sordid, servile, 
and laborious offices to be performed, is it not better that 
there should be sordid, servile, and laborious beings to per- 
form them ? If there were infallible marks by which individ- 



52 harper's memoir on slavery. 

uals of inferior intellect, and inferior character, could be se- 
lected at their birth — would not the interests of society be 
served, and would not some sort of fitness seem to require, 
that they should be selected for the inferior and servile offi- 
ces ? And if this race be generally marked by such inferiori- 
ty, is it not fit that they should fill them ? 

I am well aware that those whose aspirations are after a 
state of society from which evil shall be banished, and who 
look in life for that which life will never afford, contemplate 
that all the offices of life may be performed without contempt 
or degradation — all be regarded as equally liberal, or equally 
respected. But theorists cannot control nature and bend her 
to their views, and the inequality of which I have before 
spoken is deeply founded in nature. The offices which em- 
ploy knowledge and intellect, will always be regarded as more 
liberal than those which require the labor of the hands. 
"When there is competition for employment, he who gives it 
bestows a favor, and it will be so received. He will assume 
superiority from the power of dismissing his laborers, and 
from fear of this, the latter will practise deference, often 
amounting to servility. Such in time will become the esta- 
blished relation between the employer and the employed, the 
rich and the poor. If want be accompanied with sordidness 
and squalor, though it be pitied, the pity will be mixed with 
some degree of contempt. If it lead to misery, and misery 
to vice, there will be disgust and aversion. 

What is the essential character of Slavery, and in what 
does it diner from the servitude of other countries ? If I 
should venture on a definition, I should say that where a man 
is compelled to labor at the will of another, and to give him 
much the greater portion of the product of his labor, there 
Slavery exists; and it is immaterial by what sor^t of compul- 
sion the will of the laborer is subdued. It is what no human 



HARPER'S MEMOIR ON SLA.VERY. 53 

being would do without some sort of compulsion. He cannot 
be compelled to labor by blows. No — but what difference 
does it make, if you can inflict any other sort of torture which 
will be equally effectual in subduing the will ? if you can 
starve him, or alarm him for the subsistence of himself or his 
family ? And is it not under this compulsion- that the free- 
man labors ? I do not mean in every particular case, but in 
the general. Will any one be hardy enough to say that he is 
at his own disposal, or has the government of himself? True, 
he may change his employer if he is dissatisfied with his con- 
duct towards him ; but this is a privilege he would in the 
majority of cases gladly abandon, and render the connexion 
between them indissoluble. There is far less of the interest 
and attachment in his relation to his employer, which so often 
exists between the master and the slave, and mitigates the 
condition of the latter. An intelligent English traveller has 
characterized as the most miserable and degraded of all be- 
ings, " a masterless slave." And is not the condition of the 
laboring poor of other countries too often that of masterless 
slaves ? Take the following description of a free laborer, no 
doubt highly colored, quoted by the author to whom I have 
before referred. 

" What is that defective being, with calfless legs and stoop- 
ing shoulders, weak in body and mind, inert, pusillanimous 
and stupid, whose premature wrinkles and furtive glance, tell 
of misery and degradation ? That is an English peasant or 
pauper, for the words are synonimous. His sire was a pauper, 
and his mother's milk wanted nourishment. From infancy his 
food has been bad, as well as insufficient ; and he now feels 
the pains of unsatisfied hunger nearly whenever he is awake. 
But half clothed, and never supplied with more warmth than 
suffices to cook his scanty meals, cold and wet come to him, 
and stay by him with the weather. He is married, of course ; 
5* 



54 harper's memoir on slavery. 

for to this he would have been driven by the poor laws, even 
if he had been, as he never was, sufficiently comfortable and 
prudent to dread the burden of a family. But though in- 
stinct and the overseer have given him a wife, he has not 
tasted the highest joys of husband and father. His partner 
and his little ones being like himself, often hungry, seldom 
warm, sometimes sick without aid, and always sorrowful 
without hope, are greedy, selfish, and vexing ; so, to use his 
own expression, he hates the sight of them, and resorts to his 
hovel, only because a hedge affords less shelter from the wind 
and rain. Compelled by parish law to support his family, 
which means to join them in consuming an allowance from 
the parish, he frequently conspires with his wife to get that 
allowance increased, or prevent its being diminished. This 
brings beggary, trickery, and quarrelling, and ends in settled 
craft. Though he have the inclination, he wants the courage 
to become, like more energetic men of his class, a poacher or 
smuggler on a large scale, but he pilfers occasionally, and 
teaches his children to lie and steal. His subdued and sla- 
vish manner towards his great neighbors, shews that they 
treat him with suspicion and harshness. Consequently, he at 
once dreads and hates them ; but he will never harm them 
by violent means. Too degraded to be desperate, he is only 
thoroughly depraved. His miserable career will be short ; 
rheumatism and asthma are conducting him to the work- 
house; where he will breathe his last without one pleasant re- 
collection, and so make room for another wretch, who may 
live and die in the same way." And this description, or some 
other not much less revolting, is applied to " the bulk of the 
people, the great body of the people." Take the following de- 
scription of the condition of childhood, which has justly been 
called eloquent.* 

* Essays of Elia. 



harper's memoir on slavery. 55 

" The children of the very poor have no young times ; it 
makes the very heart bleed, to over-hear the casual street talk 
between a poor woman and her little girl, a woman of the 
better sort of poor, in a condition rather above the squalid 
beings we have been contemplating. It is not of toys, of 
nursery books, of summer holidays, (fitting that age,) of the 
promised sight or play ; of praised sufficiency at school. It is 
o^ mangling and clear starching ; of the price of coals, or of 
potatoes. The questions of the child, that should be the very 
outpourings of curiosity in idleness, are marked with forecast 
and melancholy providence. It has come to be a woman, 
before it was a child. It has learnt to go to market; it chaf- 
fers, it haggles, it envies, it murmurs ; it is knowing, acute, 
sharpened ; it never prattles." Imagine such a description ap- 
plied to the children of negro slaves, the most vacant of hu- 
man beings, whose life is a holiday. 

And this people, to whom these horrors are familiar, are 
those who fill the world with clamor, concerning the injustice 
and cruelty of Slavery. I speak in no invidious spirit. Neith- 
er the laws nor the government of England are to be re- 
proached with the evils which are inseparable from the state 
of their society — as little, undoubtedly, are we to be reproach- 
ed with the existence of our Slavery. Including the whole of 
the United States — and for reasons already given, the whole 
ought to be included, as receiving in no unequal degree the 
benefit — may we not say justly that we have less Slavery, 
and more mitigated Slavery, than any other country in 
the civilized world ? 

That they are called free, undoubtedly aggravates the suf- 
ferings of the slaves of other regions. They see the enormous 
inequality which exists, and feel their own miseiy, and can 
hardly conceive otherwise, than that there is some injustice in 
the institutions of society to occasion these. They regard the 



56 harper's memoir on slavery. 

apparently more fortunate class as oppressors, and it adds 
bitterness that they should be of the same name and race. 
They feel indignity more acutely, and more of discontent and 
evil passion is excited ; they feel that it is mockery that calls 
them free. Men do not so much hate and envy those who 
are separated from them by a wide distance, and some appa- 
rently impassable barrier, as those who approach nearer to 
their own condition, and with whom they habitually bring 
themselves into comparison. The slave with us is not tanta- 
lized with the name of freedom, to which his whole condition 
gives the lie, and would do so if he were emancipated to- 
morrow. The African slave sees that nature herself has 
marked him as a separate — and if left to himself, I have no 
doubt he would feel it to be an inferior — race, and interposed 
a barrier almost insuperable to his becoming a member of the 
same society, standing on the same footing of right and privi- 
lege with his master. 

That the African negro is an inferior variety of the human 
race, is, I think, now generally admitted, and his distinguish- 
ing characteristics are such as peculiarly mark him out for the 
situation which he occupies among us. And these are no 
less marked in their original country, than as we have daily 
occasion to observe them. The most remarkable is their in- 
difference to personal liberty. In this they have followed 
their instincts since we have any knowledge of their continent, 
by enslaving each other ; but contrary to the experience of 
every race, the possession of slaves has no material effect in 
raising the character, and promoting the civilization of the 
master. Another trait is the want of domestic affections, and 
insensibility to the ties of kindred. In the travels of the Lan- 
ders, after speaking of a single exception, in the persou of a 
woman who betrayed some transient emotion in passing by 
the country from which she had been torn as a slave, the 



harper's memoir on slavery. 57 

authors add : " that Africans, generally speaking, betray the 
most perfect indifference on losing their liberty, and being- 
deprived of their relatives, while love of country is equally a 
stranger to their breasts, as social tenderness or domestic af- 
fection." " Marriage is celebrated by the nations as uncon- 
cernedly as possible ; a man thinks as little of taking a wife, 
as of catting an ear of corn — affection is altogether out of the 
question." They are, however, very submissive to authority, 
and seem to entertain great reverence for chiefs, priests, and 
masters. No greater indignity can be offered an individual, 
than to throw opprobrium on his parents. On this point of 
their character I think I have 'remarked, that, contrary to the 
instinct of nature in other races, they entertain less regard for 
children than for parents, to whose authority they have been 
accustomed to submit. Their character is thus summed up 
by the travellers quoted : " The few opportunities we have 
had of studying their characters, induce us to believe that 
they are a simple, honest, inoffeusive, but weak, timid, and 
cowardly race. They seem to have no social tenderness, very 
few of those amiable private virtues which could win our af- 
fections, and none of those public qualities that claim respect 
or command admiration. The love of country is not strong 
enough in their bosoms to incite them to defend it against a 
despicable foe ; and of the active energy, noble sentiments, 
and contempt of danger which distinguishes the North Ame- 
rican tribes and other savages, no traces are to be found 
among this slothful people. Regardless of the past, as reck- 
less of the future, the present alone influences their actions. 
In this respect, they approach nearer to the nature of the 
brute creation, than perhaps any other people on the face of 
the globe." Let me ask if this people do not furnish the very 
material out of which slaves ought to be made, and whether 
it be not an improving of their condition to make them the 



58 



slaves of civilized masters ? There is a variety in the charac- 
ter of the tribes. Some are brutally and savagely ferocious 
and bloody, whom it would be mercy to enslave. From the 
travellers' account, it seems not unlikely that the negro race 
is tending to extermination, being daily encroached on and 
overrun by the superior Arab race. It may be, that when 
they shall have been lost from their native seats, they may 
be found numerous, and in no unhappy condition, on the con- 
tinent to which they have been transplanted. 

The opinion which connects form and features with charac- 
ter and intellectual power, is one so deeply impressed on the 
human mind, that perhaps there is scarcely any man who 
does not almost daily act upon it, and in some measure verify 
its truth. Yet in spite of this intimation of nature, and 
though the anatomist and physiologist may tell them that 
the races differ in every bone and muscle, and in the propor- 
tion of brain and nerves, yet there are some who, with a most 
bigoted and fanatical determination to free themselves from 
what they have prejudged to be prejudice, will still maintain 
that this physiognomy, evidently tending to that of the brute, 
when compared to that of the Caucasian race, may be en- 
lightened by as much thought, and animated by as lofty 
sentiment. We who have the best opportunity of judging, 
are pronounced to be incompetent to do so, and to be blinded 
by our interest and prejudices — often by those who have no 
opportunity at all — and Ave are to be taught to distrust or 
disbelieve that which w r e daily observe, and familiarly know, 
on such authority. Our prejudices are spoken of. But the 
truth is, that, until very lately, since circumstances have com- 
pelled us to think for ourselves, we took our opinions on this 
subject, as on every other, ready formed from the country of 
our origin. And so deeply rooted were they, that we adhered 
to them, as most men will do to deeply rooted opinions, even 



harper's memoir on slavery. 59 

against the evidence of our own observation, and our own 
senses. If the inferiority exists, it is attributed to the apathy 
and degradation produced by Slavery. Though of the hun- 
dreds of thousand scattered over other countries, where the 
laws impose no disability upon them, none has given evidence 
of an approach to even mediocrity of intellectual excellence ; 
this, too, is attributed to the slavery of a portion of their race. 
They are regarded as a servile caste, and degraded by opin- 
ion, and thus every generous effort is repressed. Yet though 
this should be the general effect, this very estimation is calcu- 
lated to produce the contrary effect in particular instances. It 
is observed by Bacon, with respect to deformed persons and 
eunuchs, that though in general there is something of perver- 
sity iu the character, the disadvantage often leads to extraor- 
dinary displays of virtue and excellence. " Whoever hath 
any thing fixed in his person that doth induce contempt, hath 
also a perpetual spur in himself, to rescue and deliver himself 
from scorn." So it would be with them, if they were capable 
of European aspirations — genius, if they possessed it, would, 
be doubly fired with noble rage to rescue itself from this scorn. 
Of course, I do not mean to say that there may not be found 
among them some of superior capacity to many white per- 
sons ; but that great intellectual powers are, perhaps, never 
found among them, and that in general their capacity is very 
limited, and their feelings animal and coarse — fitting them 
peculiarly to discharge the lower, and merely mechanical offi- 
ces of society. 

And why should it not be so ? We have among domestic 
animals infinite varieties, distinguished by various degrees of 
sagacity, courage, strength, swiftness, and other qualities. And 
it may be observed, that this is no objection to their being 
derived from a common origin, which we suppose them to 
have had. Yet these accidental qualities, as they may be 



CO 

termed, however acquired in the first instance, we know that 
they transmit unimpaired to their posterity for an indefinite 
succession of generations. It is most important that these 
varieties should be preserved, and that each should be applied 
to the purposes for which it is best adapted. No philo-zoost, 
I believe, has suggested it as desirable that these varieties 
should be melted down into one equal, undistinguished race 
of curs or road horses. 

Slavery, as it is said in an eloquent article published in a 
Southern periodical work,* to which I am indebted for other 
ideas, " has done more to elevate a degraded race in the scale 
of humanity ; to tame the savage ; to civilize the barbarous; 
to soften the ferocious; to enlighten the ignorant, and to 
spread the blessings of Christianity among the heathen, than 
all the missionaries that philanthropy and religion have ever 
sent forth." Yet unquestionable as this is, and though hu- 
man ingenuity and thought may be tasked in vain to devise 
any other means by which these blessings could have been 
conferred, yet a sort of sensibility winch would be only mawk- 
ish aud contemptible, if it were not mischievous, affects still 
to weep over the wrongs of "injured Africa." Can there be 
a doubt of the immense benefit which has been conferred on 
the race, by transplanting them from their native, dark, and 
barbarous regions, to the American continent and islands ? 
There, three-fourths of the race are in a state of the most de- 
plorable personal Slavery. And those who are not, are in a 
scarcely less deplorable condition of political Slavery, to bar- 
barous chiefs — who value neither life nor any other human 
right, or enthralled by priests to the most abject and atrocious 
superstitions. Take the following testimony of one of the few 
disinterested observers, who has had an opportunity of ob- 

* Southern Literary Messenger, for January, 1835. Note to Black- 
stone's Commentaries. 



harper's memoir on slavery. 61 

serving them in both situations * " The wi]d savage is the 
child of passion, unaided by one ray of religion or morality to 
direct his course, in consequence of which his existence is 
stained with every crime that can debase human nature to a 
level with the brute creation. Who can say that the slaves 
in our colonies are such ? Are they not, by comparison with 
their still savage brethren, enlightened beings ? Is not the 
West Indian negro, therefore, greatly indebted to his master 
for making him what he is— for having raised him from the 
state of debasement in which he was born, and placed him in 
a scale of civilized society ? How can he repay him ? He is 
possessed of nothing— the only return in his power is his 
servitude. The man who has seen the wild African, roaming 
in his native woods, and the well fed, happy looking negro of 
the West Indies, may, perhaps, be able to judge of their com- 
parative happiness ; the former, I strongly suspect, would be 
glad to chauge his state of boasted freedom, starvation, and 
disease, to become the slave of sinners, and the commisera- 
tion of saints." It was a useful and beneficent work, ap- 
proaching the heroic, to tame the wild horse, and subdue him 
to the use of man ; how much more to tame the nobler ani- 
mal that is capable of reason, and subdue him to usefulness ? 
We believe that the tendency of Slavery is to elevate the 
character of the master. No doubt the character — especially 
of youth — has sometimes received a taint and premature 
knowledge of vice, from the contact and association with ig- 
norant and servile beings of gross manners and morals. Yet 
still we believe that the entire tendency is to inspire disgust 
and aversion towards their peculiar vices. It was not without 
a knowledge of nature, that the Spartans exhibited the vices 
of slaves by way of negative example to their children. We 

* Journal of an officer employed in the expedition, under the com- 
mand of Capt. Owen, on the Western Coast of Africa, 1822. 
6 



62 



flatter ourselves that the view of this degradation, mitigated 
as it is, lias the effect of making probity more strict, the pride 
of character more high, the sense of honor more strong, than 
is commonly found where this institution does not exist. 
"Whatever may the prevailing faults or vices of the masters of 
slaves, they have not commonly been understood to be those 
of dishonesty, cowardice, meanness, or falsehood. And so 
most unquestionably it ought to be. Our institutions would 
indeed be intolerable in the sight of God and man, if, con- 
demning one portion of society to hopeless ignorance and 
comparative degradation, they should make no atonement by 
elevating the other class by higher virtues, and more liberal 
attainments — if, besides degraded slaves, there should be ig- 
norant, ignoble, and degraded freemen. There is a broad and 
well marked line, beyond which no slavish vice should be re- 
garded with the least toleration or allowance. One class is 
cut off from all interest in the State — that abstraction so po- 
tent to the feelings of a generous nature. The other must 
make compensation by increased assiduity and devotion to its 
honor and welfare. The love of wealth — so laudable when 
kept within proper limits, so base and mischievous when it 
exceeds them — so infections in its example — an infection to 
which I fear we have been too much exposed — should be pur- 
sued by no arts in any degree equivocal, or at any risk of 
injustice to others. So surely as there is a just and wise 
governor of the universe, who punishes the sins of nations and 
communities, as well of individuals, so surely shall we suffer 
punishment, if we are indifferent to that moral and intellectu- 
al cultivation of which the means are famished to us, and to 
which we are called and incited by our situation. 

I would to heaven 1 could express, as I feel, the conviction 
how necessary this cultivation is, not only to our prosperity 
and consideration, but to our safety and very existence. We, 



harper's memoir on slavery. 63 

the slaveholding States, are in a hopeless minority in our own 
confederated Republic — to say nothing of the great confede- 
racy of civilized States. It is admitted, I believe, not only by 
slaveholders, but by others, that we have sent to our common 
councils more than our due ' share of talent, high character 
and eloquence. Yet in spite of all these most strenuously 
exerted, measures have been sometimes adopted which we 
believed to be dangerous and injurious to us, and threatening 
to be fatal. What would be our situation, if, instead of these, 
we were only represented by ignorant and grovelling men, 
incapable of raising their views beyond a job or petty office, 
and ineapable of commanding bearing or consideration ? May 
I be perm'tted to advert— by no means invidiously— to the 
late contest carried on by South-Carolina against Federal 
authority, and so happily terminated by the moderation which 
prevailed in our public counsels. I have often reflected, what 
one circumstance, more than any other, contributed to the 
successful issue of a contest, apparently so hopeless, in which 
one weak and divided State was arrayed against the whole 
force of the Confederacy — unsustained, and uncountenanced, 
even by those who had a common interest with her. It seem- 
ed to me to be, that we had for leaders an unusual number of 
men of great intellectual power, co-operating cordially and in 
good faith, and commanding respect and confidence at home 
and abroad, by elevated and honorable character. It was 
from these that we— the followers at home — caught hope and 
confidence in the gloomiest aspect of our affairs. These, by 
their eloquence and the largeness of their views, at least shook 
the faith of the dominant majority in the wisdom and justice 
of their measures — or the practicability of carrying them into 
successful effect ; and by their bearing and well known cha- 
racter, satisfied them that South-Carolina would do all that 
she had pledged herself to do. Without these, how different 



64 harper's memoir on slavery. 

might have been «the result ? And who shall say what at 
this day would have been the aspect of the now flourishing- 
fields and cities of South-Carolina ? Or rather, without these, 
it is probable the contest would never have been begun ; but 
that, without even the animation of a struggle, we should 
have sunk silently into a hopeless and degrading subjection. 
"While I have memory — in the extremity of age — in sickness 
— under all the reverses and calamities of life — I shall have 
one source of pride and consolation — that of having been as- 
sociated — according to my humbler position — with the noble 
spirits who stood prepared to devote themselves for Liberty — 
the Constitution — the Union. May such character and such 
talent never be wanting to South-Carolina. 

I am sure that it is unnecessary to say to an assembly like 
this, that the conduct of the master to his slave should be 
distinguished by the utmost humanity. That we should in- 
deed regard them as wards and dependants on our kindness, 
for whose well-being in every way we are deeply responsible. 
This is no less the dictate of wisdom and just policy, than of 
right feeling. It is wise with respect to the services to be 
expected from them. I have never heard of an owner whose 
conduct in their management was distinguished by undue se- 
verity, whose slaves were not in a great degree worthless to 
him. A cheerful and kindly demeanor, with the expression 
of interest in themselves and their affairs, is, perhaps, calcula- 
ted to have a better effect on them, than what might be es- 
teemed more substantial favors and indulgences. Through- 
out nature, attachment is the reward of attachment. It is 
wise, too, in relation to the civilized world around us, to 
avoid giving occasion to the odium which is so industriously 
excited against ourselves and our institutions. For this rea- 
son, public opinion should, if possible, bear even more strong- 
ly and indignantly than it does at present, on masters who 



HARPER'S MEMOIR ONJ3LAVERY. 65 

practise any wanton cruelty on their slaves. The miscreant 
who is guilty of this, not only violates the law of God and of 
humanity, but as far as in him lies, by bringing odium upon, 
endangers the institutions of his country, and the safety of his 
countrymen. He casts a shade upon the character of every 
individual of his fellow-citizens, and does every one of them a 
personal injury. So of him who indulges in any odious ex- 
cess of intemperate or licentious passion. It is detached 
instances of this sort, of which the existence is, perhaps, hard- 
ly known among ourselves, that, collected with pertinacious 
and malevolent industry, affords the most formidable weapons 
to the mischievous zealots, who array them as being charac- 
teristic of our general manners and state of society. 

I would by no means be understood to intimate, that a 
vigorous, as well as just government, should not be exercised 
over slaves. This is part of our duty towards them, no less 
obligatory than any other duty, and no less necessary towards 
their well-being than to ours. I believe that at least as much 
injury has been done and suffering inflicted by weak and inju- 
dicious indulgence, as by inordinate severity. He whose busi- 
ness is to labor, should be made to labor, and that with due 
diligence, and should be vigorously restrained from excess or 
vice. This is no less necessary to his happiness than to his 
usefulness. The master who neglects this, not only makes 
his slaves unprofitable to himself, but discontented and wretch- 
ed — a nuisance to his neighbors and to society. 

I have said that the tendency of our institution is to elevate 
the female character, as well as that of the other sex, and for 
similar reasons. In other states of society, there is no well 
defined limit to separate virtue and vice. There are degrees 
of vice, from the most flagrant and odious, to that which 
scarcely incurs the censure of society. Many individuals oc- 
6* 



66 harper's memoir on slavery. 

cupy an unequivocal position ; and as society becomes accus- 
tomed to this, there will be a less peremptory requirement of 
purity in female manners and conduct; and often the whole 
of the society will be in a tainted and uncertain condition with 
respect to female virtue. Here, there is that certain and 
marked line, above which there is no toleration or allowance 
for any approach to license of manners or conduct, and she 
who falls below it, will fall far below even the slave. How 
many will incur this penalty ? 

And permit me to say, that this elevation of the female 
character is no less important and essential to us, than the 
moral and intellectual cultivation of the other sex. It would 
indeed be intolerable, if, when one class of the society is ne- 
cessarily degraded in this respect, no compensation were made 
by the superior elevation and purity of the other. Not only 
essential purity of conduct, but the utmost purity of manners, 
and I will add, though it may incur the formidable charge of 
affectation or prudery, — a greater severity of decorum than is 
required elsewhere, is necessary among us. Always should 
be strenuously resisted the attempts which have been some- 
times made to introduce among us the freedom of foreign 
European, and especially of continental manners. This free- 
dom, the remotest in the world from that which sometimes 
springs from simplicity of manners, is calculated and common- 
ly intended to confound the outward distinctions of virtue and 
vice. It is to prepare the way for licentiousness — to produce 
this effect — that if those who are clothed with the outward 
color and garb of vice, may be well received by society, those 
who are actually guilty may hope to be so too. It may be 
said, that there is often perfect purity where there is very 
great freedom of manners. And, I have no doubt, this may 
be true in particular instances, but it is never true of any soci- 



harper's memoir on slavery. 67 

ety in which this is the general state of manners. What 
guards can there be to purity, when every thing that may 
2Jossibly be done innocently, is habitually practised ; when 
there can be no impropriety which is not vice. And what 
must be the depth of the depravity when there is a departure 
from that which they admit as principle. Besides, things 
which may perhaps be practised innocently where they are 
familiar, produce a moral dilaceration in the course of their 
being introduced where they are new. Let us say, we will 
not have the manners of South-Carolina changed. 

T have before said that free labor is cheaper than the labor 
of slaves, and so far as it is so the condition of the free laborer 
is worse. But I think President Dew has sufficiently shown 
that this is only true of Northern countries. It is matter of 
familiar remark that the tendency of warm climates is to relax 
the human constitution and indispose to labor. The earth 
yields abundantly — in some regions almost spontaneously — 
under the influence of the sun, and the means of supporting 
life are obtained with but slight exertion ; and men will use 
no greater exertion than is necessary to the purpose. This 
very luxuriance of vegetation, where no other cause concurs, 
renders the air less salubrious, and even when positive malady 
does not exist, the health is habitually impaired. Indolence 
renders the constitution more liable to these effects of the at- 
mosphere, and these again aggravate the indolence. Nothing 
but the coercion of Slavery can overcome the repugnance to 
labor under these circumstances, and by subduing the soil, 
improve and render wholesome the climate. 

It is worthy of remark, that there does not now exist on 
the face of the earth, a people in a tropical climate, or one 
approaching to it, where Slavery does not exist, that is 
in a state of high civilization, or exhibits the energies which 
mark the progress towards it. Mexico and the South Ameri- 



68 harper's memoir on slavery. 

can Republics,* starting on their new career of independence, 
and having gone through a farce of abolishing slavery, are 
rapidly degenerating, even from semi-barbarism. The only 
portion of the South American continent which seems to be 
making any favorable progress, in spite of a weak and arbi- 
trary civil government, is Brazil, in which slavery has been 
retained. Cuba, of the same race with the continental repub- 
lics, is daily and rapidly advancing in industry and civiliza- 
tion ; and this is owing exclusively to her slaves. St. Do- 
mingo is struck out of the map of civilized existence, and the 
British West Indies will shortly be so. On the other conti- 
nent, Spain and Portugal are degenerate, and their rapid pro- 
gress is downward. Their southern coast is infested by dis- 

* The author of England and America thus speaks of the Colom- 
bian Republic : 

" During some years, this colony has been an independent state ; 
but the people dispersed over this vast and fertile plain, have almost 
ceased to cultivate the good land at their disposal ; they subsist prin- 
cipally, many of them entirely, on the flesh of wild cattle ; they have 
lost most of the arts of civilized life ; not a few of them are in a state 
of deplorable misery; and if they should continue., as it seems proba- 
ble they will, to retrograde as at present, the beautiful pampas of 
Buenos Ayres will soon be fit for another experiment in colonization. 
Slaves, black or yellow, would have cultivated those plains, would 
have kept together, would have been made to assist each other ; 
would, by keeping together and assisting each other, have raised a 
surplus produce exchangeable in distant markets ; would have kept 
their masters together for the sake of markets ; would, by combina- 
tion of labor, have preserved among their masters the arts and habits 
of civilized life." Yet this writer, the whole practical effect of whose 
work, whatever he may have thought or intended, is to show the ab- 
solute necessity, and immense benefits of Slavery, finds it necessary 
to add, I suppose in deference to the general sentiment of his country- 
men, " that Slavery might have done all this, seems not more plain, 
than that so much good would have been bought too dear, if its price 
had been Slavery." Well may we say that the word makes men mad . 



69 



ease, arising from causes which industry might readily over- 
come, but that industry they will never exert. Greece is still 
barbarous, and scantily peopled. The work of an English 
physician, distinguished by strong sense and power of obser- 
vation,* gives a most affecting picture of the condition of 
Italy, — especially south of the Appenines. With the decay 
of industry, the climate has degenerated towards the condition 
from which it was first rescued by the labor of slaves. There 
is poison in every man's veins, affecting the very Springs of 
life, dulling or extinguishing, with the energies of the body, 
all energy of mind, and often exhibiting itself in the most ap- 
palling forms of disease. From year to year the pestilential 
atmosphere creeps forward, narrowing the circles within which 
it is possible to sustain human life. With disease and misery, 
industry still more rapidly decays, and if the process goes on, 
it seems that Italy too will soon be ready for another experi- 
ment in colonization. 

Yet once it was not so, when Italy was possessed by theV/ 
masters of slaves ; when Rome contained her millions, and 
Italy was a garden ; when their iron energies of body corres- 
ponded with the energies of mind which made them conquer- 
ors in every climate and on every soil ; rolled the tide of 
conquest, not as in later times, from the South to the North ; 
extended their laws and their civilization, and created them 
lords of the earth. 

" What conflux issuing forth or entering in ; 
Praetors, pro-consuls to their provinces, 
Hasting, or on return in robes of state. 
Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power, 
Legions and cohorts, tunns of horse and wings : 
Or embassies from regions far remote, 
In various habits, on the Appian road, 

* Johnson on Chansre of Air. 



70 

Or on th' Emilian ; some from farthest South, 

Syene, and where the shadow both way lulls, 

Meroe, Nilotic isle, and more to West, 

The realms of Bocchus to the Blackmoor sea ; 

From th' Asian kings, and Parthian among these ; 

From India and the golden Chersonese, 

And utmost India's isle, Taprobona, 

Dusk faces, with white silken turbans wreathed; 

From Gallia, Gades, and the British West ; 

Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians, North 

Beyond Danubius to the Tauric Pool ! 

All nations now to Pome obedience pay." 

Such was, and such is, the picture of Italy. Greece pre- 
sents a contrast not less striking. What is the cause of the 
great change ? Many causes, no doubt, have occurred ; but 
though 

" War, famine, pestilence, and flood and fire, 
Have dealt upon the seven-hilled city's pride," 

vl will venture to say that nothing has dealt upon it more 
heavily than the loss of domestic slavery. Is not this evident ? 
If they had slaves, with an energetic civil government, would 
the deadly miasma be permitted to overspread the Campagna, 
and invade Rome herself? Would not the soil be cultivated, 
and the wastes reclaimed ? A late traveller* mentions a ca- 
nal, cut for miles through rock and mountain, for the purpose 
of carrying off the waters of the lake of Celano, on which 
thirty thousand Roman slaves were employed for eleven years, 
and which remains almost perfect to the present day. This ? 
the government of Naples w T as ten years in repairing with an 
hundred workmen. The imperishable works of Rome which 
remain to the present day were, for the most part, executed 
by slaves. How different would be the condition of Naples, 

* Eight days in the Abruzzi. — Blackwood's Magazine, November, 
1835. 



if for her wretched lazzaroni were substituted negro slaves, 
employed in rendering productive the plains whose fertility 
now serves only to infect the air ! 

To us, on whom this institution is fastened, and who could 
not shake it off, even if we desired to do so, the great repub- 
lics of antiquity offer instruction of inestimable value. They 
teach us that slavery is compatible with the freedom, stabili- 
ty, and long duration of civil government, with denseness of 
population, great power, and the highest civilization. x\.nd in 
what respect does this modern Europe, which claims to give 
opinions to the world, so far excel them — notwithstanding the 
immense advantages of the Christian religion and the discove- 
ry of the art of printing ? They are not more free, nor have 
performed more glorious actions, nor displayed more exalted 
virtue. In the higher departments of intellect — in all that 
relates to taste and imagination — they will hardly venture to 
claim equality. Where they have gone beyond them in the 
results of mechanical philosophy, or discoveries which contri- 
bute to the wants and enjoyments of physical life, they have 
done so by the help of means with which they were furnished 
by the Grecian mind — the mother of civilization — and only 
pursued a little further the tract which that had always point- 
ed out. In the development of intellectual power, they will 
hardly bear comparison. Those noble republics in the pride 
of their strength and greatness, may have anticipated for them- 
selves — as some of their poets did for them, — an everlasting 
duration and predominance. But they could not have antici- 
pated, that when they had fallen under barbarous arms, that 
when arts and civilization were lost, and the whole earth in 
darkness — the first light should break from their tombs — that 
in a renewed world, unconnected with them by ties of locality, 
language or descent, they should still be held the models of 
all that is profound in science, or elegant in literature, or all 



72 harper's memoir on slavery. 

that is great in character, or elevated in imagination. And 
perhaps when England herself, who now leads the war with 
which we are on all sides threatened, shall have fulfilled her 
mission, and like the other glorious things of the earth, shall 
have passed away ; when she shall have diffused her noble 
race and noble language, her laws, her literature, and her 
civilization, over all quarters of the earth, and shall perhaps 
be overrun by some Northern horde — sunk into an ignoble 
and anarchical democracy,* or subdued to the dominion of 
some Caesar, — demagogue and despot, — then, in Southern re- 
gions, there may be found many republics, triumphing in 
Grecian arts and civilization, and worthy of British descent 
and Roman institutions. 

If, after a time, when the mind and almost the memory of 
the republic were lost, Romans degenerated, they furnish con- 
clusive evidence that this w T as owing not to their domestic, 
but to their political Slavery. The same thing is observed 
over all the Eastern monarchies; and so it must be, wherever 
property is insecure, and it is dangerous for a man to raise 
himself to such eminence by intellectual or moral excellence, 
as would give him influence over his society. So it is in 
Egypt; and the other regions bordering the Mediterranean, 
which once comprehended the civilization of the world, where 
Carthage, Tyre, and Phoenicia flourished. In short, the un- 
contradicted experience of the world is, that in the Southern 
States where good government and predial and domestic Sla- 
very are found, there are prosperity and greatness ; where 
either of these conditions is wanting, degeneracv and barba- 
rism. The former, however, is equally essential in all climates 
and under all institutions. And can we suppose it to be the 

* I do not use the word democracy in the Athenian sense, but to 
describe the government in which the slave and his master have an 
equal voice in public affairs. 



is 

design of the Creator, that these regions, constituting half of 
the earth's surface, and the more fertile half, and more capa- 
ble of sustaining life, should be abandoned forever to depopu- 
lation and barbarism ? Certain it is that they will never be 
reclaimed by the labor of freemen. In our own country, look 
at the lower valley of the Mississippi, which is. capable of be- 
ing made a far greater Egypt. In our own State, there are 
extensive tracts of the most fertile soil> which are capable of 
being made to swarm with life. These are at present pesti- 
lential swamps, and valueless, because there is abundance of 
other fertile soil in more favorable situations, which demand 
all and more than all the labor which our country can sup- 
ply. Are these regions of fertility to be abandoned at once 
and forever to the alligator and tortoise — with here and there 
perhaps a miserable, shivering, crouching free black savage ? 
Does not the finger of heaven itself seem to point to a race of 
men — not to be enslaved by us, but already enslaved, and 
who will be in every way benefitted by the change of masters 
— to whom such climate is not uncongenial, who, though dis- 
posed to indolence, are yet patient and capable of labor, on 
whose whole features, mind and character, nature has indelibly 
written — slave ; — and indicate that we should avail ourselves - 
of these in fulfilling the first great command to subdue and 
replenish the earth. 

It is true that this labor will be dearer than that of North- 
ern countries, where, under the name of freedom, they obtain 
cheaper and perhaps better slaves. Yet it is the best we can 
have, and this too has its compensation. "We see it compen- 
sated at present by the superior value of our agricultural pro- 
ducts. And this superior value they must probably always 
have. The Southern climate admits of a greater variety of 
productions. Whatever is produced in Northern climates, 
the same thing, or something equivalent, may be produced 
V 



in the Southern. But the Northern have no equivalent for 
the products of Southern climates. The consequence will be, 
that the products of Southern regions will be demanded all 
over the civilized world. The agricultural products of North- 
ern regions are chiefly for their own consumption. They must 
therefore apply themselves to the manufacturing of articles of 
luxury, elegance, convenience, or necessity, — which requires 
cheap labor — for the purpose of exchanging them with their 
Southern neighbors. Thus nature herself indicates that agri- 
culture should be the predominating employment in Southern 
countries, and manufactures in Northern. Commerce is ne- 
cessary to both — but less indispensable to the Southern, 
which produce within themselves a greater variety of things 
desirable to life. They will therefore have somewhat less of 
the commercial spirit. We must avail ourselves of such la- 
bor as we can command. The slave must labor, and is inured 
to it ; while the necessity of energy in his government, of 
watchfulness, and of preparation and power to suppress insur- 
rection, added to the moral force derived from the habit of 
command, may help to prevent the degeneracy of the master. 
The task of keeping down insurrection is commonly sup- 
posed by those who are strangers to our institutions, to be a 
very formidable one. Even among ourselves, accustomed as 
we have been to take our opinions on this as on every other 
subject, ready formed from those whom we regarded as in- 
structors, in the teeth of our own observation and experience, 
fears have been entertained which are absolutely ludicrous. 
We have been supposed to be nightly reposing over a mine, 
which may at any instant explode to our destruction. The 
first thought of a foreigner sojourning in one of our cities, 
who is awakened by any nightly alarm, is of servile insurrec- 
tion and massacre. Yet if any thing is certain in human 
affairs, it is certain and from the most obvious considerations, 



harper's memoir on slavery. *75 

that we are more secure in this respect than any civilized and 
fully peopled society upon the face of the earth. In every 
such society, there is a much larger proportion than with us, 
of persons who have more to gain than to lose by the over- 
throw of government, and the embroiling of social order. It 
is in such a state of things that those who were before at the 
bottom of society, rise to the surface. From causes already 
considered, they are peculiarly apt to consider their sufferings 
the result of injustice and misgovernment, and to be ranco- 
rous and embittered accordingly. They have every excite- 
ment, therefore, of resentful passion, and every temptation 
which the hope of increased opulence, or power or considera- 
tion can hold out, to urge them to innovation and revolt. 
Supposing the same disposition to exist in equal degree among 
our slaves, what are their comparative means or prospect of 
gratifying it ? The poor of other countries are called free. 
They have, at least, no one interested to exercise a daily and 
nightly superintendence and control over their conduct and 
actions. Emissaries of their class may traverse, unchecked, 
every portion of the country, for the purpose of organizing in- 
surrection. From their greater intelligence, they have great- 
er means of communicating with each other. They may pro- 
cure and secrete arms. It is not alone the ignorant, or those 
who are commonly called the poor, that will be tempted to 
revolution. There will be many disappointed men, and men 
of desperate fortune — men perhaps of talent and daring — to 
combine them and direct their energies. Even those in the 
higher ranks of society who contemplate no such result, will 
contribute to it, by declaiming on their hardships and rights. 
With us, it is almost physically impossible that there 
should be any very extensive combination among the slaves. 
It is absolutely impossible that they should procure and con- 
ceal efficient arms. Their emissaries traversing the country, 



76 harper's memoir on slavery. 

would carry their commissions on their foreheads. If we sup- 
pose among them an individual of sufficient talent and ener- 
gy to qualify him for a revolutionary leader, he could not be 
so extensively known as to command the confidence, which 
would be necessary to enable him to combine and direct them. 
Of the class of freemen, there would be no individual so poor 
or degraded (with the exception perhaps of here and there a 
reckless and desperate outlaw and felon) who would not have 
much to lose by the success of such an attempt ; every one, 
therefore, would be vigilant and active to detect and suppress 
it. Of all impossible things, one of the most impossible would 
be a successful insurrection of our slaves, originating with 
themselves. 

Attempts at insurrection have indeed been made — excited, 
as we believe, by the agitation of the abolitionists and de- 
rlaimers on Slavery ; but these have been in every instance 
promptly suppressed. We fear not to compare the riots, dis- 
order, revolt and bloodshed, which have been committed in 
our own, with those of any other civilized communities, dur- 
ing the same lapse of time. And let it observed under what 
extraordinary circumstances our peace has. been preserved. 
For the last half century, one half of our population has been 
admonished in terms the most calculated to madden and 
excite, that they are the victims of the most grinding and 
cruel injustice and oppression. We know that these exhorta- 
tions continually reach them, through a thousand channels 
which we cannot detect, as if carried by the birds of the air — 
and what human being, especially when unfavorably distin- 
guished by outward circumstances, is not ready to give credit 
when he is told that he is the victim of injustice and oppres- 
sion ? In effect, if not in terms, they have been continually 
exhorted to insurrection. The master has been painted as a 
criminal, tyrant and robber, justly obnoxious to the vengeance 



harper's memoir on slavery. YY 

of God and man, and they have been assured of the counte- 
nance and sympathy, if not of the active assistance, of all the 
rest of the world. We ourselves have in some measure plead- 
ed guilty to the impeachment. It is not long since a great 
majority of our free population, servile to the opinions of those 
whose opinions they had been accustomed to follow, would 
have admitted Slavery to be a great evil, unjust and indefen- 
sible in principle, and only to be vindicated by the stern ne- 
cessity which was imposed upon us. Thus stimulated by 
every motive and passion which ordinarily actuate human 
beings — not as to a criminal enterprise, but as to something 
generous and heroic — what has been the result ? A few im- 
becile and uncombined plots — in every instance detected 
before they broke out into action, and which perhaps if unde- 
tected would never have broken into action. One or two 
sudden, unpremeditated attempts, frantic in their character, if 
not prompted by actual insanity, and these instantly crushed. 
As it is, we are not less assured of safety, order, and internal 
peace, than any other people ; and but for the pertinacious 
and fanatical agitations of the subject, would be much more so. 
This experience of security, however, should admonish us 
of the folly and wickedness of those who have sometimes taken 
upon themselves to supersede the regular course of law, and 
by rash and violent acts to punish supposed disturbers of the 
peace of society. This can admit of no justification or pallia- 
tion whatever. Burke, I think, somewhere remarked some- 
thing to this effect, — that when society is in the last stage of 
depravity — when all parties are alike corrupt, and alike wick- 
ed and unjustifiable in their measures and objects, a good man 
may content himself with standing neuter, a sad and dis- 
heartened spectator of the conflict between the rival vices. 
But are we in this wretched condition ? It is fearful to see 
with what avidity the worst and most dangerous characters of 
1* 



*78 harper's memoir on slavery. 

society seize on the occasion of obtaining the countenance of 
better men, for the purpose of throwing off the restraints of 
law. It is always these who are most zealous and forward in 
constituting themselves the protectors of the public peace. 
To such men — men without reputation, or principle, or stake 
in society — disorder is the natural element. In that, despe- 
rate fortunes and the want of all moral principle and moral 
feeling constitute power. They are eager to avenge them- 
selves upon society. Anarchy is not so much the absence of 
government, as the government of the worst — not aristocracy, 
but kakistocracy — a state of things, which to the honor of our 
nature, has seldom obtained amongst men, and which per- 
haps was only fully exemplified during the worst times of the 
French revolution, when that horrid hell burnt with its most 
lurid flame. In such a state of things, to be accused is to be 
condemned — to protect the innocent is to be guilty ; and what 
perhaps is the worst effect, even men of better nature, to 
whom their own deeds are abhorrent, are goaded by terror to 
be forward and emulous in deeds of guilt and violence. The 
scenes of lawless violence which have been acted in some por- 
tions of our country, rare and restricted as they have been, 
have done more to tarnish its reputation than a thousand 
libels. They have done more to discredit, and if anything 
could, to endanger, not only our domestic, but our republican 
institutions, than the abolitionists themselves. Men can 
never be permanently and effectually disgraced but b}^ them- 
selves, and rarely endangered but by their own injudicious 
conduct, giving advantage to the enemy. Better, far better, 
would it be to encounter the dangers with which we are sup- 
posed to be threatened, than to employ such means for avert- 
ing them. But the truth is, that in relation to this matter, 
so far as respects actual insurrection, when alarm is once 
excited, danger is absolutely at an end. Society can then 



harper's memoir on slavery. Id 

employ legitimate and more effectual measures for its own 
protection. The very commission of such deeds is proof that 
they are unnecessary. Let those who attempt them, then, or 
make any demonstration towards them, understand that they 
will meet only the discountenance and abhorrence of all 
good men, and the just punishment of the laws they have 
dared to outrage. 

It has commonly been supposed, that this institution will 
prove a source of weakness in relation to military defence 
against a foreign enemy. I will venture to say that in a 
slaveholding community, a larger military force may be main- 
tained permanently in the field, than in any State where there 
are not slaves. It is plain that almost the whole of the able 
bodied free male population, making half of the entire able 
bodied male population, may be maintained in the field, and 
this without taking in any material degree from the labor and 
resources of the country. In general, the labor of our coun- 
try is performed by slaves. In other countries, it is their 
laborers that form the material of their armies. What pro- 
portion of these can be taken away without fatally crippling 
their industry and resources ? In the war of the revolution, 
though the strength of our State was wasted and paralyzed 
by the unfortunate divisions which existed among ourselves, 
yet it may be said with general truth, that every citizen was 
in the field, and acquired much of the qualities of the soldier. 

It is true that this advantage will be attended with its com- 
pensating evils and disadvantages ; to which we must learn 
to submit, if we are determined on the maintenance of our 
institutions. We are, as yet, hardly at all aware how little 
the maxims and practices of modern civilized governments 
will apply to us. Standing armies, as they are elsewhere 
constituted, we cannot have ; for we have not, and for genera- 
tions cannot have, the materials out of which they are to be 



80 harper's memoir on slavery. 

formed. If we should be involved in serious wars, I have no 
doubt but that some sort of conscription, requiring the ser- 
vice of all citizens for a considerable term, will be necessary. 
Like the people of Athens, it will be necessary that every 
citizen should be a soldier, and qualified to discharge efficient- 
ly the duties of a soldier. It may seem a melancholy consi- 
deration, that an army so made up should be opposed to the 
disciplined mercenaries of foreign nations. But we must 
learn to know our true situation. But may we not hope, 
that made up of superior materials, of men having home and 
country to defend ; inspired by higher pride of character, of 
greater intelligence, and trained by an effective, though hon- 
orable discipline, such an army will be more than a match 
for mercenaries. The efficiency of an army is determined by 
the qualities of its officers, and may we not expect to have a 
greater proportion of men better qualified for officers, and 
possessing the true spirit of military command. And let it 
be recollected that if there were otherwise reason to appre- 
hend danger from insurrection, there will be the greatest 
seeurity when there is the largest force on foot within the 
country. Then it is that any such attempt would be most 
instantly and effectually crushed. 

And, perhaps, a wise foresight should induce our State to 
provide, that it should have within itself such military know- 
ledge and skill as may be sufficient to organize, discipline and 
command armies, by establishing a military academy or school 
of discipline. The school of the militia will not do for this. 
From the general opinion of our weakness, if our country 
should at any time come into hostile collision, we shall be 
selected for the point of attack ; making us, according to 
Mr. x\dams's anticipation, the Flanders of the United States. 
Come from what quarter it may, the storm will fall upon us. 
It is known that lately, when there was apprehension of hos- 



harper's memoir oisr slavery. 81 

tility with France, the scheme was instantly devised of invad- 
ing- the Southern States and organizing insurrection. In a 
popular English periodical work, I have seen the plan sug- 
gested by an officer of high rank and reputation in the Bri- 
tish army, of invading the Southern States at various points 
and operating by the same means. He is said to be a gal- 
lant officer, and certainly had no conception that he was 
devising atrocious crime, as alien to the true spirit of civilized 
warfare, as the poisoning of streams and fountains. But the 
folly of suck schemes is no less evident than their wicked- 
ness. Apart from the consideration of that which experience 
has most fully proved to be true — that in general their 
attachment and fidelity to their masters is not to be shaken, 
and that from sympathy with the feelings of those by whom 
they are surrounded, and from whom they derive their im- 
pressions, they contract no less terror and aversion towards an 
invading enemy ; it is manifest that this recourse would be 
an hundred fold more available to us than to such an enemy. 
They are already in our possession, and we might at will arm 
and organize them in any number that we might think pro- 
per. The Helots were a regular constituent part of the Spar- 
tan armies. Thoroughly acquainted with their characters, 
and accustomed to command them, we might use any strict- 
ness of discipline which would be necessary to render them 
effective, and from their habits of subordination already form- 
ed, this would be a task of less difficulty. Though morally 
most timid, they are by no means wanting in physical strength 
of nerve. They are excitable by praise ; and directed by 
those in whom they have confidence, would rush fearlessly 
and unquestioning upon any sort of danger. With white 
officers and accompanied by a strong white cavalry, there arc 
no troops in the world from whom there would be so little 
reason to apprehend insubordination or mutiny. 



82 

This, I admit, might be a dangerous resource, and one not 
to be resorted to but in great extremity. But I am supposing 
the case of our being driven to extremity. It might be dan- 
gerous to disband such an army, and reduce them with the 
habits of soldiers, to their former condition of laborers. It 
might be found necessary, when once embodied, to keep them 
so, and subject to military discipline — a permanent standing 
army. This in time of peace would be expensive, if not dan- 
gerous. Or if at any time we should be engaged in hostili- 
ties with our neighbors, and it were thought advisable to send 
such an army abroad to conquer settlements for themselves, 
the invaded regions might have occasion to think that the 
scourge of God was again let loose to afflict the earth. 

President Dew has very fully shown how utterly vain are 
the fears of those, who, though there may be no danger for 
the present, yet apprehend great danger for the future, when 
the number of slaves shall be greatly increased. He has 
shown that the larger and more condensed society becomes, 
the easier it will be to maintain subordination, supposing the 
relative number of the different classes to remain the same — 
or even if there should be a very disproportionate increase of 
the enslaved class. Of all vain things, the vainest and that 
in which man most shows his impotence and folly, is the 
taking upon himself to provide for a very distant future — at 
all events by any material sacrifice of the present. Though 
experience has shown that revolutions and political move- 
ments — unless when they have been conducted with the most 
guarded caution and moderation — have generally terminated 
in results just the opposite of what was expected from them, 
the angry ape will still play his fantastic tricks, and put in 
motion machinery, the action of which he no more compre- 
hends or foresees than he comprehends the mysteries of in- 
finity. The insect that is borne upon the current will fancy 



harper's memoir on slavery. 



83 



that lie directs its course. Besides the fear of insurrection 
and servile war, there is also alarm lest, when their numbers 
shall be greatly increased, their labor will become utterly un- 
profitable, so that it will be equally difficult for the master to 
retain and support them, or to get rid of them. But at what 
age of the world is this likely to happen ? At present, it 
may be said that almost the whole of the Southern portion of 
this continent is to be subdued to cultivation ; and in the 
order of providence, this is the task allotted to them. For 
this purpose, more labor will be required for generations to 
come than they will be able to supply. When that task is 
accomplished, there will be many objects to which their labor 
may be directed. 

At present they are employed in accumulating individual 
wealth, and this in one way, to wit, as agricultural laborers— 
and this is, perhaps, the most useful purpose to which their 
labor can be applied. The effect of Slavery has not been to 
counteract the tendency to dispersion, which seems epidemical 
among our countrymen, invited by the unbounded extent of 
fertile and unexhausted soil, though it counteracts many of 
the evils of dispersion. All the customary trades, professions 
and employments, except the agricultural, require a condensed 
population for their profitable exercise. The agriculturist who 
can command no labor but that of his own hands, or that of 
his family, must remain comparatively poor and rude. He 
who acquires wealth by the labor of slaves, has the means of 
improvement for himself and his children. He may have a 
more extended intercourse, and consequently means of infor- 
mation and refinement, and may seek education for his chil- 
dren where it may be found. I say, what is obviously true, 
that he has the means of obtaining those advantages; but I 
say nothing to palliate or excuse the conduct of him who, 
having such means, neglects to avail himself of them. 



84 harper's memoir on slavery. % 

I believe it to be true, that in consequence of our disper- 
sion, though individual "Wealth is acquired, the face of the 
country is less adorned and improved by useful and ornamen- 
tal public -works, than in other societies of more condensed 
population, where there is less wealth. But this is an effect 
of that which constitutes perhaps our most conspicuous ad- 
vantage. Where population is condensed, they must have 
the evils of condensed population, and among these is the 
difficulty of finding profitable employment for capital. lie 
■who has accumulated even an inconsiderable sum, is often 
puzzled to know what use to make of it. Ingenuity is there- 
fore tasked to cast about for every enterprise which may afford 
a chance of profitable investment. Works useful and orna- 
mental to the country, are thus undertaken and accomplished, 
and though the proprietors may fail of profit, the community 
no less receives the benefit. Among us, there is no such dif- 
ficulty. A safe and profitable method of investment is offered 
to every one who has capital to dispose of, which is further 
recommended to his feelings by the sense of independence 
and the comparative leisure which the employment affords to 
the proprietor engaged in it. It is for this reason that few of 
our citizens engage in the pursuits of commerce. Though 
these may be more profitable, they are also more hazardous 
and more laborious. 

W^hen the demand for agricultural labor shall be fully sup- 
plied, then of course the labor of slaves will be directed to 
other employments and enterprises. Already it begins to be 
found, that in some instances it may be used as profitably in 
works of public improvement. As it becomes cheaper and 
cheaper, it will be applied to more various purposes and com- 
bined in larger masses. It may be commanded and com- 
bined with more facility than any other sort of labor ; and 
the laborer, kept in stricter subordination, will be less danger- 



harper's memoir on slavery. 85 

ous to the security of society than in any other country, which 
is crowded and overstocked with a class of what are called 
free laborers. Let it be remembered that all the great and 
enduring monuments of human art and industry — the won- 
ders of Egypt — the everlasting works of Rome — were created 
by the labor of slaves. There will come a stage in our pro- 
gress when we shall have facilities for executing works as 
great as any of these — more useful than the pyramids — not 
less magnificent than the sea of Moeris. What the end of all 
is to be ; what mutations lie hid in the womb of the distant 
future ; to what convulsions our societies may be exposed — 
whether the master, finding it impossible to live with his 
slaves, may not be compelled to abandon the country to 
them — of all this it were presumptious and vain to speculate. 
I have hitherto, as I proposed, considered it as a naked, 
abstract question of the comparative good and evil of the in- 
stitution of slavery. Very far different indeed is the practical 
question presented to us, when it is proposed to get rid of an 
institution which has interwoven itself with every fibre of the 
body politic ; which has formed the habits of our society, and 
is consecrated by the usage of generations. If this be not a 
vicious prescription, which the laws of God forbid to ripen 
into right, it has a just claim to be respected by all tribunals 
of man. If the negroes were now free, and it were proposed 
to enslave them, then it would be incumbent on those who 
proposed the measure to show clearly that their liberty was 
incompatible with the public security. When it is proposed 
-to innovate on the established state of things, the burden is 
on those who propose the innovation, to show that advantage 
will be gained from it. There is no reform, however neces- 
sary, wholesome or moderate, which will not be accompanied 
with some degree of inconvenience, risk or suffering. Those 
who acquiesce in the state of things which they found exist- 
8 



8G harper's memoir on slavery. 

ing, can hardly be thought criminal. But most deeply cri- 
minal are they who give rise to the enormous evil with which 
great revolutions in society are always attended, without the 
fullest assurance of the greater good to be ultimately obtained. 
But if it can be made to appear, even probably, that no good 
will be obtained, but that the results will be evil and calami- 
tous as the process, what can justify such innovations ? No 
human being can be so mischievous — if acting consciously, 
none can be so wicked as those who, finding evil in existing 
institutions, rush blindly upon change, unforeseeing and reck- 
less of consequences, and leaving it to chance or fate to deter- 
mine whether the end shall be improvement, or greater and 
more intolerable evil. Certainly the instincts of nature prompt 
to resist intolerable oppression. For this resistance no rule 
can be prescribed, but it must be left to the instincts of nature. 
To justify it, however, the insurrectionists should at least have 
a reasonable probability of success, and be assured that their 
condition will be improved by success. But most extraordi- 
nary is it, when those who complain and clamor are not those 
who are supposed to feel the oppression, but persons at a dis- 
tance from them, and who can hardly at all appreciate the 
good or the evil of their situation. It is the unalterable con- 
dition of humanity, that men must achieve civil liberty for 
themselves. The assistance of allies has sometimes enabled 
nations to repel the attacks of foreign power, never to con- 
quer liberty as against their own internal government. 

In one thing I concur with the abolitionists ; that if eman- 
cipation is to be brought about, it is better that it should be 
immediate and total. But let us suppose it to be brought 
about in any manner, and then enquire what would be the 
effects. 

* The first and most obvious effect, would be to put an end 
to the cultivation of our great Southern staple. And this 



harper's memoir on slavery. 87 

would be equally the result, if we suppose the emancipated 
negroes to be in no way distinguished from the free laborers 
of other countries, and that their labor would be equally effec- 
tive. In that case, they would soon cease to be laborers for 
hire, but would scatter themselves over our unbounded terri- 
tory, to become independent land owners themselves. The 
cultivation of the soil on an extensive scale, can only be car- 
ried on where there are slaves, or in countries superabounding 
with free labor. No such operations are carried on in any por- 
tions of our own country where there are not slaves. Such are 
carried on in England, where there is an overflowing popula- 
tion and intense competition for employment. And our insti- 
tutions seem suited to the exigencies of our respective situa- 
tions. There, a much greater number of laborers is required 
at one season of the year than at another, and the former 
may enlarge or diminish the quantity of labor he employs, as 
circumstances may require. Here, about the same quantity 
of labor is required at every season, and the planter suffers no 
inconvenience from retaining his laborers throughout the year 
Imagine an extensive rice or cotton plantation cultivated by 
free laborers, who might perhaps strike for an increase of 
wages, at a season when the neglect of a few days would 
insure the destruction of the whole crop. Even if it were 
possible to procure laborers at all, what planter would venture 
to carry on his operations under such circumstances ? I need 
hardly say that these staples cannot be produced to any 
extent where the proprietor of the soil cultivates it with his 
own hands. He can do little more than produce the neces- 
sary food for himself and his family. 

And what would be the effect of putting an end to the cul- 
tivation of these staples, and thus annihilating, at a blow, two- 
thirds or three-fourths of our foreign commerce ? Can any 
sane mind contemplate such a result without terror ? I speak 



88 

not of the utter poverty and misery to which we ourselves 
would be reduced, and the desolation which would overspread 
our own portion of the country. Our Slavery has not only 
given existence to millions of slaves within our own territo- 
ries, it has given the means of subsistence, and therefore ex- 
istence, to millions of freemen in our confederates States; 
enabling them to send forth their swarms to overspread the 
plains and forests of the West, and appear as the harbingers 
of civilization. The- products of the industry of those States 
are in general similar to those of the civilized world, and are 
little demanded in their markets. By exchanging them for 
ours, which are every where sought for, the people of these 
States are enabled to acquire all the products of art and indus- 
try, all that contributes to convenience or luxury, or gratifies 
the taste or the intellect, which the rest of the world can sup- 
ply. Not only on our own continent, but on the other, it has 
given existence to hundreds of thousands, and the means of 
comfortable subsistence to millions. A distinguished citizen 
of our own State, than whom none can be better qualified to 
form an opinion, has lately stated that our great staple, cotton, 
has contributed more than any thing else of later times to the 
progress of civilization. By enabling the poor to obtain cheap 
and becoming clothing, it has inspired a taste for comfort, the 
first stimulus to civilization. Does not self-defence, then, 
demand of us steadily to resist the abrogation of that which 
is productive of so much good ? It is more than self-defence. 
It it to defend millions of human beings, who are far removed 
from us, from the intensest suffering, if not from being struck 
out of existence. It is the defence of human civilization. 

But this is but a small part of the evil which would be oc- 
casioned. After President Dew, it is unnecessary to say a 
single word on the practicability of colonizing our slaves. The 
two races, so widely separated from each other by the impress 



harper's memoir on slavery. 89 

of nature, must remain together in the same country. Wheth-/ 
er it be accounted the result of prejudice or reason, it is cer- 
tain that the two races will not be blended together so as to 
form a homogenous population. To one who knows anything 
of the nature of man and human society, it would be unneces- 
sary to argue that this state of things cannot continue ; but 
that one race must be driven out by the other, or extermina- 
ted, or again enslaved. I have argued on the supposition 
that the emancipated negroes would be as efficient as other 
free laborers. But whatever theorists, who know nothino- f 
the matter, may think proper to assume, we well know that 
this would not be so. We know that nothing but the coer- 
cion of Slavery can overcome their propensity to indolence, 
and that not one in ten would be an efficient laborer. Even 
if this disposition were not grounded in their nature, it would 
be a result of their position. I have somewhere seen it ob- 
served, that to be degraded by opinion, is a thousand fold 
worse, so far as the feelings of the individuals are concerned, 
than to be degraded by the laws. They would be thus de- 
graded, and this feeling is incompatible with habits of order 
and industry. Half our population would at once be paupers. 
Let an inhabitant of New-York or Philadelphia conceive of 
the situation of their respective States, if one-half of their popu- 
tion consisted of free negroes. The tie which now connects 
them, being broken, the different races w r ould be estranged / 
from each other, and hostility would grow up between them. 
Having the command of their own time and actions, they 
could more effectually combine insurrection, and provide the 
means of rendering it formidable. Released from the vigilant 
superintendence which now restrains them, they would infalli- 
bly be led from petty to greater crimes, until all life and pro- 
perty would be rendered insecure. Aggression would beget 
retaliation, until open war — and that a war of extermination 
8* 



90 harper's memoir on slavery. 

— were established. From the still remaining superiority of 
the white race, it is probable that they would be the victors, 
and if they did not exterminate, they must again reduce the 
others to Slavery — when they could be no longer fit to be 
either slaves or freemen. It is not only in self-defence, in de- 
fence of our country and of all that is dear to us, but in de- 
fence of the slaves themselves, that we refuse to emancipate 
them. 

If we suppose them to have political privileges, and to be 
admitted to the elective franchise, still worse results may be 
expected. It is hardly necessary to add anything to what 
has been said by Mr. Paulding on this subject, who has treat- 
ed it fully. It is already known, that if there be a class un- 
favorably distinguished by any peculiarity from the rest of 
society, this distinction forms a tie which binds them to act in 
concert, and they exercise more than their due share of politi- 
cal power and influence — and still more, as they are of inferior 
character and looser moral principle. Such a class form the 
v very material for demagogues to work with. Other parties 
court them, and concede to them. So it would be with the 
free blacks in the case supposed. They would be used by 
unprincipled politicians, of irregular ambition, for the advance- 
ment of their schemes, until they should give them political 
power and importance beyond even their own intentions. 
They would be courted by excited parties in their contests 
with each other. At some time, they may perhaps attain 
political ascendancy, and this is more probable, as we may 
suppose that there will have been a great emigration of whites 
from the country. Imagine the government of such legisla- 
tors. Imagine then the sort of laws that will be passed, to 
confound the invidious distinction which has been so long 
assumed over them, and, if possible, to obliterate the very 
memory of it. These will be resisted. The blacks will be 



harper's memoir on slavery. 91 

tempted to avenge themselves by oppression and proscription 
of the white race, for their long superiority. Thus matters 
will go on, until universal anarchy, or kakistocracy, the gov- 
ernment of the worst, is fully established. I am persuaded 
that if the spirit of evil should devise to send abroad upon 
the earth all possible misery, discord, horror, and atrocity, he 
could contrive no scheme so effectual as the emancipation of 
negro slaves within our country. 

The most feasible scheme of emancipation, and that which 
I verily believe would involve the least danger and sacrifice, 
would be that the entire white population should emigrate, 
and abandon the country to their slaves. Here would be 
triumph to philanthropy. This wide and fertile region would 
be again restored to ancient barbarism — to the worst of all 
barbarism — barbarism corrupted and depraved by intercourse 
w 7 ith civilization. And this is the consummation to be wished, 
upon a speculation, that in some distant future age, they may 
become so enlightened and improved, as to be capable of sus- 
taining a position among the civilized races of the earth. But 
I believe moralists allow men to defend their homes and their 
country, even at the expense of the lives and liberties of others. 
Will any philanthropist say that the evils, of which I have 
spoken, would be brought about only by the obduracy, preju- 
dices, and overweening self-estimation of the whites in refu- 
sing to blend the races by marriage, and so create an homoge- 
nous population ? But what, if it be not prejudice, but truth, 
and nature, and right reason, and just moral feeling ? As I 
have before said, throughout the whole of nature, like attracts 
like, and that which is unlike repels. What is it that makes 
so unspeakably loathsome, crimes not to be named, and hard- 
ly alluded to ? Even among the nations of Europe, so nearly 
homogenous, there are some peculiarities of form and feature, 
mind and character, which may be generally distinguished by 



92 harper's memoir on slavery. 

those accustomed to observe them. Though the exceptions 
are numerous, I will venture to say that not in one instance in a 
hundred, is the man of sound and unsophisticated tastes and 
propensities so likely to be attracted by the female of a for- 
eign stock, as by one of his own, who is more nearly conform- 
ed to himself. Shakspeare spoke the language of nature, 
when he made the senate and people of Venice attribute to 
the effect of witchcraft, Desdemona's passion for Othello — 
though, as Coleridge has said, we are to conceive of him not 
as a negro, but as a high bred Moorish chief. 

If the negro race, as I have contended, be inferior to our 
own in mind and character, marked by inferiority of form and 
features, then ours would sutler deterioration from such inter- 
mixture. What would be thought of the moral conduct of 
>J the parent who should voluntarily transmit disease, or fatuity, 
or deformity to his offspring ? If man be the most perfect 
work of the Creator, and the civilized European man the most 
perfect variety of the human race, is he not criminal who 
would desecrate and deface God's fairest work; estranging it 
further from the image of himself, and conforming it more 
nearly to that of the brute ? I have heard it said, as if it af- 
forded an argument, that the African is as well satisfied of 
the superiority of his own complexion, form, and features, as 
we can be of ours. If this were true, as it is not, would any 
one be so recreant to his own civilization, as to say that his 
opinion ought to weigh against ours — that there is no univer- 
sal standard of truth, and grace, and beauty — that the Hot- 
tentot Venus may perchance possess as great perfection of 
form as the Medicean ? It is true, the licentious passions of 
men overcome the natural repugnance, and find transient 
gratification in intercourse witli females of the other race. But 
this is a very different thing from making her the associate of 
life, the companion of the bosom and the hearth. Him who 



harper's memoir on slavery. 93 

would contemplate such an alliance for himself, or regard it 
with patience, when proposed for a son, or daughter, or sister, 
we should esteem a degraded wretch — with justice, certainly, 
if he were found among ourselves — and the estimate would 
not be very different if he were found in Europe. It is not 
only in defence of ourselves, of our country, and of our own 
generation, that we refuse to emancipate our slaves, but to de- 
fend our posterity and race from degeneracy and degradation. 

Are we not justified then in regarding as criminals, the fa- 
natical agitators whose efforts are intended to bring about the 
evils I have described ? It is sometimes said that their zeal is 
generous and disinterested, and that their motives may be 
praised, though their conduct be condemned. But I have 
little faith in the good motives of those who pursue bad ends. 
It is not for us to scrutinize the hearts of men, and we can 
only judge of them by the tendency of their actions. There 
is much truth in what was said by Coleridge. " I have never 
known a trader in philanthropy who was not wrong in heart 
somehow or other. Individuals so distinguished, are usually 
unhappy in their family relations — men not benevolent or be- 
neficent to individuals, but almost hostile to them, yet lavish- 
ing money and labor and time on the race — the abstract no- 
tion." The prurient love of notoriety actuates some. There 
is much luxury in sentiment, especially if it can be indulged 
at the expense of others, and if there be added some share of 
envy or malignity, the temptation to indulgence is almost 
irresistible. But certainly they may be justly regarded as 
criminal, who obstinately shut their eyes and close their ears 
to all instruction with respect to the true nature of their ac- 
tions. 

It must be manifest to every man of sane mind that it is 
impossible for them to achieve ultimate success ; even if every 
individual in our country, out of the limits of the slaveholding 



94 harper's memoir on slavery. 

States, were united in their purposes. They cannot have even 
the miserable triumph of St. Domingo — of advancing through 
j scenes of atrocity, blood and massacre, to the restoration of 
barbarism. They may agitate and perplex the world for a 
time. They may excite to desperate attempts and particular 
acts of cruelty and horror, but these will always be suppressed 
or avenged at the expense of the objects of their truculent 
philanthropy. But short of this, they can hardly be aware of 
the extent of the mischief they perpetrate. As I have said, 
their opinions, by means to us inscrutible, do very generally 
reach our slave population. What human being, if unfavora- 
bly distinguished by outward circumstances, is not ready to 
believe when he is told that he is the victim of injustice ? Is 
it not cruelty to make men restless and dissatisfied in their 
condition, when no effort of theirs can alter it ? The greatest 
injury is done to their characters, as well as to their happi- 
ness. Even if no such feelings or designs should be enter- 
tained or conceived by the slave, they will be attributed to 
him by the master, and all his conduct scanned with a severe 
and jealous scrutiny. Thus distrust and aversion are estab- 
lished, where, but for mischievous interference, there would 
be confidence and good will, and a sterner control is exercised 
over the slave who thus becomes the victim of his cruel advo- 
cates. 

An effect is sometimes produced on the minds of slave- 
holders, by the publications of the self-styled philanthropists, 
and their judgments staggered and consciences alarmed. It 
is natural that the oppressed should hate the oppressor. It is 
still more natural that the oppressor should hate his victim. 
Convince the master that he is doing injustice to his slave, 
and he at once begins to regard him with distrust and ma- 
lignity. It is a part of the constitution of the human mind, 
that when circumstances of necessity or temptation induce 



harper's memoir on slavery. 95 

men to continue in the practice of what they believe to be 
wrong, they become desperate and reckless of the degree of 
wrong. I have formerly heard of a master who accounted 
for his practising much severity upon his slaves, and exacting 
from them an unusual degree of labor, by saying that the 
thing (Slavery) was altogether wrong, and therefore it was 
well to make the greatest possible advantage out of it. This 
agitation occasions some slaveholders to hang more loosely 
on their country. Regarding the institution as of questiona- 
ble character, condemned by the general opinion of the world, 
and one which must shortly come to an end, they hold them- 
selves in readiness to make their escape from the evil which 
they anticipate. Some sell their slaves to new masters (al- 
ways a misfortune to the slave) and remove themselves to 
other societies, of manners and habits uncongenial to their 
own. And though we may suppose that it is only the weak 
and the timid who are liable to be thus affected, still it is 
no less an injury and public misfortune. Society is kept in 
an unquiet and restless state, and every sort of improvement 
is retarded. 

Some projectors suggest the education of slaves, with a 
view to prepare them for freedom — as if there were any 
method of a man's being educated to freedom, but by him- 
self. The truth is, however, that supposing that they are 
shortly to be emancipated, and that they have the capacities 
of any other race, they are undergoing the very best educa- 
tion which it is possible to give. They are in the course of 
being taught habits of regular and patient industry, and this 
is the first lesson which is required. I suppose that their 
most zealous advocates would not desire that they should be 
placed in the high places of society immediately upon their 
emancipation, but that they should begin their course of freedom 
as laborers, and raise themselves afterwards as their capacities 



96 harper's memoir on slavery. 

and characters might enable them. But how little would 
what are commonly called the rudiments of education, add to 
their qualifications as laborers ? But for the agitation which 
exists, however, their education would be carried further than 
this. There is a constant tendency in our society to extend 
the sphere of their employments, and consequently to give 
them the information which is necessary to the discharge of 
those employments. And this, for the most obvious reason, 
it promotes the master's interest. How much would it add 
to the value of a slave, that he should be capable of being 
employed as a clerk, or be able to make calculations as a me- 
chanic ? In consequence, however, of the fanatical spirit 
which has been excited, it has been thought necessary to re- 
press this tendency by legislation, and to prevent their acquir- 
ing the knowledge of which they might make a dangerous 
use. If this spirit were put down, and we restored to the 
consciousness of security, this would be no longer necessary, 
and the process of which I have spoken would be accelerated. 
Whenever indications of superior capacity appeared in a slave, 
it would be cultivated ; gradual improvement would take 
place, until they might be engaged in as various employments 
as they were among the ancients — perhaps even liberal ones. 
Thus, if in the adorable providence of God, at a time and in 
a manner which we can neither foresee nor conjecture, tjiey 
are to be rendered capable of freedom and to enjoy it, they 
would be prepared for it in the best and most effectual, be- 
cause in the most natural and gradual manner. But fanati- 
cism hurries to its effect at once. I have heard it said, God 
does good, but it is by imperceptible degrees ; the devil is 
permitted to do evil, and he does it in a hurry. The benefi- 
cent processes of nature are not apparent to the senses. You 
cannot see the plant grow, or the flower expand. The vol- 
cano, the earthquake, and the hurricane, do their work of 



harper's memoir on slavery. 97 

desolation in a moment. Such would be the desolation, if 
the schemes of fanatics were permitted to have effect. They 
do all that in them lies to thwart the beneficent purposes of 
providence. The whole tendency of their efforts is to aggra- 
vate present suffering, and to cut off the chance of future im- 
provement, and in all their bearings and results, have pro- 
duced, and are likely to produce, nothing but " pure, unmixed, 
dephlegmated, defecated evil." 

If Wilberforce or Clarkson were living, and it were enquired 
of them "can you be sure that you have promoted the happi- 
ness of a single human being?" I imagine that, if they con- 
sidered conscientiously, they would find it difficult to answer 
in the affirmative. If it were asked "can you be sure that 
you have not been the cause of suffering, misery and death 
to thousands,"— when we recollect that they probably stimu- 
lated the exertions of the amis des noirs in France, and that 
through the efforts of these the horrors of St. Domingo were 
perpetrated— I think they must hesitate long to return a de- 
cided negative. It might seem cruel, if we could, to convince 
a man who has devoted his life to what he esteemed a good 
and generous purpose, that he has been doing only evil— that 
he has been worshipping a horrid fiend, in the place of the 
true God. But fanaticism is in no danger of being convinced. 
It is one of the mysteries of our nature, and of the divine 
government, how utterly disproportioned to each other are 
the powers of doing evil and of doing good. The poorest and 
most abject instrument, that is utterly imbecile for any pur- 
pose of good, seems sometimes endowed with almost the 
powers of omnipotence for mischief. A mole may inundate 
a province— a spark from a forge may conflagrate a city— a 
whisper may separate friends— a rumor may convulse an em- 
pire—but when we would do benefit to our race or country, 
the purest and most chastened motives, the most patient 
9 



98 harper's memoir on slavery. 

thought and labor, -with the humblest self-distrust, are hardly 
sufficient to assure us that the results may not disappoint our 
expectations, and that we may not do evil instead of good. 
But are we therefore to refrain from efforts to benefit our race 
and country ? By no means : but these motives, this labor 
and self-distrust are the only conditions upon which we are 
permitted to hope for success. Very different indeed is the 
course of those whose precipitate and ignorant zeal would 
overturn the fundamental institutions of society, uproar its 
peace and endanger its security, in pursuit of a distant and 
shadowy good, of which they themselves have formed no defi- 
nite conception — whose atrocious philosophy would sacrifice 
a generation — and more than one generation — for any hy- 
pothesis. 



HAMMOND'S LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 



SILVER BLUFF, (So. Ca.,) January 28, 1845. 

Sir : I received, a short time ago, a letter from the Rev 
Willoughby M. Dickinson, dated at your residence, " Play ford 
Hall, near Ipswich, 2Gth November, 1844," in which was en- 
closed a copy of your Circular Letter, addressed to professing 
Christians in our Northern States, having no concern with 
Slavery, and to others there. I presume that Mr. Dickinson's 
letter was written with your knowledge, and the document 
enclosed with your consent and approbation. I therefore feel 
that there is no impropriety in my addressing my reply direct- 
ly to yourself, especially as there is nothing in Mr. Dickinson's 
communication requiring serious notice. Having abundant 
leisure, it will be a recreation to devote a portion of it to an 
examination and free discussion of the question of Slavery as 
it exists in our Southern States : and since you have thrown 
down the gauntlet to me, I do not hesitate to take it up. 

Familiar as you have been with the discussions of this sub- 
ject in all its aspects, and under all the excitements it has 
occasioned for sixty years past, I may not be able to present 
much that will be new to you. Nor ought I to indulge the 
hope of materially affecting the opinions you have so long 
cherished, and so zealously promulgated. Still, time and ex- 
perience have developed facts, constantly furnishing fresh tests 



100 

to opinions formed sixty years since, and continually placing 
this great question in points of view, which could scarcely 
occur to the most consummate intellect even a quarter of a 
century ago : and which may not have occurred yet to those 
whose previous convictions, prejudices, and habits of thought, 
have thoroughly and permanently biased them to oue fixed 
way of looking at the matter : while there are peculiarities in 
the operation of every social system, and special local as well 
as moral causes materially affecting it, which no one, placed 
at the distance you are from us, can fully comprehend or pro- 
perly appreciate. Besides, it may be possibly, a novelty to 
you to encounter one who conscientiously believes the domes- 
tic Slavery of these States to be not only an inexorable neces- 
sity for the present, but a moral and humane institution, pro- 
ductive of the greatest political and social advantages, and 
who is disposed, as I am, to defend it on these grounds. 

I do not propose, however, to defend the African slave 
trade. That is no longer a question. Doubtless great evils 
arise from it as it has been, and is now conducted : unneces- 
sary wars and cruel kidnapping in Africa : the most shocking 
barbarities in the middle passage : and perhaps a less humane 
system of Slavery in countries continually supplied with fresh 
laborers at a cheap rate. The evils of it, however, it may be 
fairly presumed, are greatly exaggerated. And if I might 
judge of the truth of transactions stated as occurring in this 
trade, by that of those reported as transpiring among us, I 
should not hesitate to say, that a large proportion of the sto- 
ries in circulation are unfounded, and most of the remainder 
highly colored. 

On the passage of the Act of Parliament prohibiting this 
trade to British subjects rests, what you esteem, the glory of 
your life. It required twenty years of arduous agitation, and 
the intervening extraordinary political events, to convince your 



101 



countrymen, and among the rest your pious king, of the ex- 
pediency of the measure : and it is but just to say, that no 
one individual rendered more essential service to the cause 
than you did. In reflecting on the subject, you cannot but often 
ask yourself : What, after all, has been accomplished ; how 
much human suffering has been averted ; how many human 
beings have been rescued from transatlantic Slavery ? And 
on the answers you can give these questions, must in a great 
measure, I presume, depend the happiness of your life. In 
framing them, how frequently must you be reminded of the 
remark of Mr. Grosvenor, in one of the early debates upon the 
subject, which I believe you have yourself recorded, " that he 
had twenty objections to the abolition of the slave trade : the 
first was, that it was impossible — the rest he need not give." 
Can you say to yourself, or to the world, that this first ob- 
jection of Mr. Grosvenor has been yet confuted ? It was esti- 
mated at the commencement of your agitation in 1787, that 
forty-five thousand Africans were annually transported to 
America and the West Indies. And the mortality of the 
middle passage, computed by some at five, is now admitted 
not to have exceeded nine per cent. Notwithstanding your 
Act of Parliament, the previous abolition by the United States, 
and that all the powers in the world have subsequently pro- 
hibited this trade — some of the greatest of them declaring it 
piracy, and covering the African seas with armed vessels to 
prevent it — Sir Thomas Fowel Buxton, a coadjutor of yours, 
declared in 1840, that the number of Africans now annually 
sold into slavery beyond the sea, amounts, at the very least, 
to one hundred and fifty thousand souls ; while the mortality 
of the middle passage has increased, in consequence of the 
measures taken to suppress the trade, to twenty-five or thirty 
per cent. And of the one hundred and fifty thousand slaves 
who have been captured and liberated by British men-of-war, 
9* 



102 Hammond's letters on slavery. 

since the passage of your Act, Judge Jay, an American aboli- 
tionist, asserts that one hundred thousand, or two-thirds, have 
perished between their capture and liberation. Does it not 
really seem that Mr. Grosvenor was a prophet ? That though 
nearly all the "impossibilities" of 1*787 have vanished, and 
become as familiar facts as our household customs, under the 
magic influence of steam, cotton, and universal peace, yet this 
wonderful prophecy still stands, defying time and the energy 
and genius of mankind. Thousands of valuable lives, and fifty 
millions of pounds sterling, have been thrown away by your 
government in fruitless attempts to overturn it. I hope you 
have not lived too long for your own happiness, though you 
have been spared to see that in spite of all your toils and 
those of your fellow-laborers, and the accomplishment of all 
that human agency could do, the African slave trade has in- 
creased three-fold under your own eyes — more rapidly, per- 
haps, than any other ancient branch of commerce — and that 
your efforts to suppress it have effected nothing more than a 
three-fold increase of its horrors. There is a God who rules 
this world — all-powerful — far-seeing : He does not permit his 
creatures to foil his designs. It is he who, for his all-wise, 
though to us often inscrutable purposes, throws "impossibili- 
ties " in the w r ay of our fondest hopes and most strenuous 
exertions. Can you doubt this ? 

Experience having settled the point, that this trade cannot 
be abolished by the use of force, and that blockading squadrons 
serve only to make it more profitable and more cruel, I am 
surprised that the attempt is persisted in, unless it serves as a 
cloak to other purposes. It would be far better than it now 
is, for the African, if the trade was free from all restrictions, 
and left to the mitigation and decay which time and competi- 
tion would surely bring about. If kidnapping, both secretly 
and by war made for the purpose, could be by any means 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 103 

prevented in Africa, the next greatest blessing you could be- 
stow upon that country would be to transport its actual slaves 
in comfortable vessels across the Atlantic. Though they 
might be perpetual bondsmen, still they would emerge from 
darkness into light — from barbarism into civilization — from 
idolatry to Christianity — in short from death to life. 

But let us leave the African slave trade, which has so sig- 
nally defeated the philanthropy of the world, and turn to 
American Slavery, to which you have now directed your at- 
tention, and against which a crusade has been preached as 
enthusiastic and ferocious as that of Peter the Hermit — des- 
tined, I believe, to be about as successful. And here let me 
say, there is a vast difference between the two, though you 
may not acknowledge it. The wisdom of ages has concurred 
in the justice and expediency of establishing rights by pre- 
scriptive use, however tortious in their origin they may have 
been. You would deem a man insane, whose keen sense of 
equity would lead him to denounce your right to the lands 
you hold, and which perhaps you inherited from a long line 
of ancestry, because your title was derived from a Saxon or 
Norman conqueror, and your lands were originally wTested 
b} r violence from the vanquished Britons. And so would the 
New-England abolitionist regard any one who would insist 
that he should restore his farm to the descendants of the 
slaughtered red men, to Avhom God had as clearly given it as 
he gave life and freedom to the kidnapped African. That 
time does not consecrate wrong, is a fallacy which all history 
exposes ; and which the best and wisest men of all ages and 
professions of religious faith have practically denied. The 
means, therefore, whatever they may have been, by which the 
African race now in this country have been reduced to Slave- 
ry, cannot affect us, since they are our property, as your land 
is yours, by inheritance or purchase and prescriptive right. 




104 hammond's letters on slavery. 

You will say that man cannot hold property in man. The 
answer is, that lie can and actually does hold property in his 
fellow all the world over, in a variety of forms, and lias always 
done so. I will show presently his authority for doing it. 

If you were to ask me whether I am an advocate of Slave- 
ry in the abstract, I should probably answer, that I am not, 
according to my understanding of the question. I do not like 
to deal in abstractions. It seldom leads to any useful ends. 
There are few universal truths. I do not now remember any 
single moral truth universally acknowledged. We have no 
assurance that it is given to our finite understanding to com- 
prebend abstract moral truth. Apart from revelation and the 
inspired writings, what ideas should we have even of God, 
salvation and immortality ? Let the heathen answer. Justice 
itself is impalpable as an abstraction, and abstract liberty the 
merest phantasy that ever amused the imagination. This 
world was made for man, and man for the world as it is. We 
ourselves, our relations with one another and with all matter, 
are real, not ideal. I might say that I am no more in favor 
of Slavery in the abstract, than I am of poverty, disease, de- 
formity, idiocy, or any other inequality in the condition of the 
human family ; that I love perfection, and think I should en- 
joy a millennium such as God has promised. But what would 
it amount to ? A pledge that I would join you to set about 
eradicating those apparently inevitable evils of our nature, in 
equalizing the condition of all mankind, consummating the 
perfection of our race, and introducing the millennium ? By 
no means. To effect these things, belongs exclusively to a 
higher power. And it would be well for us to leave the Al- 
mighty to perfect his own works and fulfil his own covenants. 
Especially, as the history of the past shows how entirely futile 
all human efforts have proved, when made for the purpose of 
aiding llim in carrying out even his revealed designs, and 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 105 

how invariably he has accomplished them by unconscious in- 
struments, and in the face of human expectation. Nay more, 
that every attempt which has been made by fallible man to 
extort from the world obedience to his " abstract " notions of 
right and wrong, has been invariably attended with calamities 
dire, and extended just in proportion to the breadth and vigor 
of the movement. On Slavery in the abstract, then, it would 
not be amiss to have as little as possible to say. Let us con- 
template it as it is. And thus contemplating it, the first 
question we have to ask ourselves is, whether it is contrary to 
the will of God, as revealed to us in his Holy Scriptures — 
the only certain means given us to ascertain his will. If it 
is, then Slavery is a sin. And I admit at once that every 
man is bound to set his face against it, and to emancipate his 
slaves, should he hold any. 

Let us open these Holy Scriptures. In the twentieth chap- 
ter of Exodus, seventeenth verse, I find the following words : 
" Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not 
covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid- 
servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neigh- 
bor's " — which is the tenth of those commandments that de- 
clare the essential principles of the great moral law delivered 
to Moses by God himself. Now, discarding all technical and 
verbal quibbling as wholly unworthy to be used in interpre- 
ting the Word of God, what is the plain meaning, undoubted 
intent, and true spirit of this commandment ? Does it not 
emphatically and explicitly forbid you to disturb your neigh- 
bor in the enjoyment of his property ; and more especially of 
that which is here specifically mentioned as being lawfully, 
and by this commandment made sacredly his ? Prominent • 
in the catalogue stands his " man-servant and his maid-ser- / 
vant," who are thus distinctly con secrat ed as his property, andV 
guaranteed to him for his exclusive benem^in the most solemn 



106 Hammond's letters on slavery. 

manner. You attempt to avert the otherwise irresistible con- 
clusion, that Slavery was thus ordained by God, by declaring 
that the word " slave" is not used here, and is not to be found 
in the Bible. And I have seen many learned dissertations on 
this point from abolition pens. It is well known that both 
I the Hebrew and Greek words translated "servant" in the 
^Scriptures, mean also, and most usually, "slave." The use of 
the one word, instead of the other, was a mere matter of taste 
with the translators of the Bible, as it has been with all the 
commentators and religious writers, the latter of whom have, 
I believe, for the most part, adopted the term " slave," or used 
both terms indiscriminately. If, then, these Hebrew and 
Greek words include the idea of both systems of servitude, the 
conditional and unconditional, they should, as the major in- 
cludes the minor proposition, be always translated "slaves," 
unless the sense of the whole text forbids it. The real ques- 
tion, then is, what idea is intended to be conveyed by the 
words used in the commandment quoted ? And it is clear to 
my mind, that as no limitation is affixed to them, and the 
express intention was to secure to mankind the peaceful en- 
joyment of every species of property, that the terms " men- 
servants and maid-servants" include all classes of servants, 
and establish a lawful, exclusive, and indefeasible interest 
equally in the "Hebrew brother who shall go out in the sev- 
enth year," and " the yearly hired servant," and " those pur- 
chased from the heathen round about," who were to be 
"bondmen forever," as the property of their fellow-man. 

You cannot deny that there were among the Hebrews 
" bondmen forever." You cannot deny that God especially 
authorized his chosen people to purchase " bondmen forever " 
from the heathen, as recorded in the twenty -fifth chapter of 
Leviticus, and that they are there designated by the very He- 
brew word used in the tenth commandment. Nor can you 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 107 

deny that a " bondman forever " is a " slave ;" yet you 
endeavor to bang an argument of immortal consequence upon 
the wretched subterfuge, that the precise word « slave " is not 
to be found in the translation of the Bible. As if the trans- 
lators were canonical expounders of the Holy Scriptures, 'and 
their words, not God's meaning, must be regarded as his * 
revelation. 

It is vain to look to Christ or any of his Apostles to justify 
such blasphemous perversions of the word of God. Although 
Slavery in its most revolting form was everywhere visible 
around them, no visionary notions of piety or philanthropy 
ever tempted them to gainsay the law, even to mitigate the 
cruel severity of the existing system. On the contrary, re- 
garding Slavery as an established, as well as inevitable condi- 
tion of human societij, they never hinted at such a thing as its 
termination on earth, any more than that " the poo°r may 
cease out of the land," which God affirms to Moses shall 
never be : and they exhort « all servants under the yoke " to 
"count their masters as worthy of all honor:" "to obey them 
in all things according to the flesh ; not with eye-service as 
men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God ;" " not 
only the good' and gentle, but also the froward :" "for what 
glory is it if when ye are buffetted for your faults ye shall 
take it patiently ? but if when ye do well and suffer for it ye 
take it patiently, this is acceptable of God." St. Paul actual- J 
\j apprehended a runaway slave, and sent him to his master ! 
Instead of deriving from the Gospel any sanction for the work 
you have undertaken, it would be difficult to imagine senti- 
ments and conduct more strikingly in contrast, than those of 
the Apostles and the abolitionists. 

It is impossible, therefore, to suppose that Slavery is contra- 
ry to the will of God. It is equally absurd to say that Ameri- 
can Slavery differs in form or principle from that of the cho- 



J.08 hammond's letters on slavery. 

sen people. We accept the Bible terms as the definition of 
our Slavery, and its precepts as the guide of our conduct. 
We desire nothing more. Even the right to " buffet," which 
is esteemed so shocking, finds its express license in the gospel. 
1 Peter ii. 20. Nay, what is more, God directs the Hebrews 
to " bore holes in the ears of their brothers " to mark them, 
when under certain circumstances they become perpetual 
slaves. Exodus xxi. 6. 

I think, then, I may safely conclude, and I firmly believe, 
that American Slavery is not only not a sin, but especially 
commanded by God through Moses, and approved by Christ 
through his apostles. And here I might close its defence ; for 
what ( rod ordains, and Christ sanctifies, should surely com- 
mand the respect and toleration of man. But I fear there has 
grown up in our time a transcendental religion, which is throw- 
ing even transcendental philosophy into the shade — a religion 
too pure and elevated for the Bible ; which seeks to erect 
among men a higher standard of morals than the Almighty 
has revealed, or our Saviour preached ; and which is probably 
destined to do more to impede the extension of God's king- 
dom on earth than ail the infidels who have ever lived. Error 
is error. It is as dangerous to deviate to the right hand as 
J the left. And when men, professing to be holy men, and 
who are by numbers so regarded, declare those things to be 
sinful which our Creator has expressly authorized and institu- 
ted, they do more to destroy his authority among mankind 
than the most wicked can effect, by proclaiming that to be 
innocent which he has forbidden. To this self-righteous and 
self-exalted class belong all the abolitionists whose writings I 
have read. With them it is no end of the argument to prove 
your propositions by the text of the Bible, interpreted accord- 
ing to its plain and palpable meaning, and as understood by 
all mankind for three thousand years before their time. They 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 109 

are more ingenious at construing and interpolating to accom- 
modate it to their new-fangled and etherial code of morals, 
than ever were Voltaire and Hume in picking it to pieces, to 
free the world from what they considered a delusion. When 
the abolitionists proclaim "man-stealing" to be a sin, and 
show me that it is so written down by God, I admit the'm to 
be right, and shudder at the idea of such a crime. But when 
I show them that to hold " bondmen forever" is ordained by 
God, they deny the Bible, and set up in its place a law of their 
own making. I must then cease to reason with them on this 
branch of the question. Our religion differs as widely as our 
manners. The great judge in our day of final account must 
decide between us. 

Turning from the consideration of slaveholding in its rela- 
tions to man as an accountable being, let us examine it in its 
influence on his political and social state. Though, being 
foreigners to us, you are in no wise entitled to interfere with 
the civil institutions of this country, it has become quite com- 
mon for your countrymen to decry Slavery as an enormous 
political evil to us, and even to declare that our Northern 
States ought to withdraw from the Confederacy rather than 
continue to be contaminated by it. The American abolition- 
ists appear to concur fully in these sentiments, and a portion, 
at least, of them are incessantly threatening to dissolve the 
Union. Nor should I be at all surprised if they succeed. It 
would not be difficult, in my opinion, to conjecture which 
region, the North or South, would suffer most by such an 
event. For one, I should not object, by any means, to cast 
my lot in a confederacy of States whose citizens might all be 
slaveholders. 

I endorse without reserve the much abused sentiment of 
Governer M'Duffie, that " Slavery is the corner-stone of our 
republican edifice ;" while I repudiate, as ridiculously absurd, 
10 



J 



110 

that much lauded but nowhere accredited dogma of Mr. Jef- 
ferson, that " all men are born equal." No society has ever 
yet existed, and I have already incidentally quoted the high- 
est authority to show that none ever will exist, without a 
natural variety of classes. The most marked of these must, 
in a country like ours, be the rich and the poor, the educated 
and the ignorant. It will scarcely be disputed that the very 
poor have less leisure to prepare themselves for the proper 
discharge of public duties than the rich ; and that the igno- 
rant are wholly unfit for them at all. In all countries save 
ours, these two classes, or the poor rather, who are presumed 
to be necessarily ignorant, are by law expressly excluded from 
all participation in the management of public affairs. In a 
Republican Government this cannot bo done. Universal suf- 
frage, though not essential in theory, seems to be in fact a 
necessary appendage to a republican system. "Where univer- 
sal suffrage obtains, it is obvious that the government is in 
the hands of a numerical majority ; and it is hardly necessary 
to say that in every part of the world more than half the peo- 
ple are ignorant and poor. Though no one can look upon 
poverty as a crime, and we do not here generally regard it as 
any objection to a man in his individual capacity, still it must 
be admitted that it is a wretched and insecure government 
which is administered by its most ignorant citizens, and those 
who have the least at stake under it. Though intelligence 
and wealth have great influence here, as everywhere, in keep- 
ing in check reckless and unenlightened numbers, yet it is 
evident to close observers, if not to all, that these are rapidly 
usurping all power in the non-slaveholding States, and threat- 
en a fearful crisis in republican institutions there at no remote 
period. In the slaveholding States, however, nearly one-half 
of the whole population, and those the poorest and most igno- 
rant, have no political influence whatever, because they are 



Ill 

slaves. Of the other half, a large proportion are both educa- 
ted and independent in their circumstances, while those who 
unfortunately are not so, being still elevated far above the 
mass, are higher toned and more deeply interested in pre- 
serving a stable and well ordered government, than the same 
class in any other country. Hence, Slavery is truly the 
" corner-stone " and foundation of every well-designed and 
durable " republican edifice." 

With us every citizen is concerned in the maintenance of 
order, and in promoting honesty and industry among those of 
the lowest class who are our slaves ; and our habitual viffi- 
lance renders standing armies, whether of soldiers or police- 
men, entirely unnecessary. Small guards in our cities, and 
occasional patrols in the country, ensure us a repose and se- 
curity known no where else. You cannot be ignorant that, 
excepting the United States, there is no country in the world 
whose existing government would not be overturned in a 
month, but for its standing armies, maintained at an enormous 
and destructive cost to those whom they are destined to over- 
awe — so rampant and combative is the spirit of discontent 
wherever nominal free labor prevails, with its ostensive privi- 
leges and its dismal servitude. Nor will it be long before the 
"free States" of this Union will be compelled to introduce 
the same expensive machinery, to preserve order among their 
"free and equal" citizens. Already has Philadelphia organ- 
ized a permanent battalion for this purpose ; New-York, Bos- 
ton and Cincinnati will soon follow her example ; and then the 
smaller towns and densely populated counties. The inter- 
vention of their militia to repress violations of the peace is 
becoming a daily affair. A strong government, after some of 
the old fashions — though probably with a new name — sus- 
tained by the force of armed mercenaries, is the ultimate 
destiny of the non-slave-holding section of this confederacy, 
and one which may not be very distant. 



112 HAMMONDS LETTERS ON SLAVERT. 

It is a great mistake to suppose, as is generally done abroad, 
that in case of war slavery would be a source of weakness. 
It did not weaken Rome, nor Athens, nor Sparta, though their 
slaves were comparatively far more numerous than ours, of 
the same color for the most part with themselves, and large 
numbers of them familiar with the use of arms. I have no 
apprehension that our slaves would seize such an opportunity 
to revolt. The present generation of them, born among us, 
would never think of such a thing at any time, unless insti- 
gated to it by others. Against such instigations we are al- 
ways on our guard. In time of war we should be more 
watchful and better prepared to put down insurrections than 
at any other periods. Should any foreign nation be so lost 
to every sentiment of civilized humanity, as to attempt to 
erect among us the standard of revolt, or to invade us with 
black troops, for the base and barbarous purpose of stirring 
up servile war, their efforts would be signally rebuked. Our 
slaves could not be easily seduced, nor would any thing de- 
light them more than to assist in stripping Cuffee of his regi- 
mentals to put him in the cotton-field, which would be the 
fate of most black invaders, without any very prolix form of 
u apprenticeship." If, as I am satisfied would be the case, our 
slaves remained peaceful on our plantations, and cultivated 
them in time of war under the superintendence of a limited 
number of our citizens, it is obvious that we could put forth 
more strength in such an emergency, at less sacrifice, than 
any other people of the same numbers. And thus we should 
in every point of view, u out of this nettle danger, pluck the 
flower safety." 

How far Slavery may be an advantage or disadvantage to 
those not owning slaves, yet united with us in political asso- 
ciation, is a question for their sole consideration. It is true 
that our representation in Congress is increased by it. But so 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 113 

are our taxes ; and the non slave-holding States, being the 
majority, divide among themselves far the greater portion of 
the amount levied by the Federal Government. And I doubt 
not that, when it comes to a close calculation, they will not 
be slow in rinding out that the balance of profit arising from 
the connection is vastly in their favor. 

In a social point of view the abolitionists pronounce Slavery 
to be a monstrous evil. If it was so, it would be our own pe- 
culiar concern, and superfluous benevolence in them to lament ' 
over it. Seeing their bitter hostility to us, they might leave 
us to cope with our own calamities. But they make war upon 
us out of excess of charity, and attempt to purify by covering 
us with calumny. You have read and assisted to circulate a 
great deal about affrays, duels and murders, occurring here, 
and all attributed to the terrible demoralization of Slavery. 
Not a single event of this sort takes place among us, but it is 
caught up by the abolitionists, and paraded over the world, 
with endless comments, variations and exaggerations. You 
should not take what reaches you as a mere sample, and infer 
that there is a vast deal more you never hear. You hear all, 
and more than all, the truth. 

It is true that the point of honor is recognized throughout 
the slave region, and that disputes of certain classes are fre- 
quently referred for adjustment, to the "trial by combat." 
It would not be appropriate for me to enter, in this letter, into 
a defence of the practice of duelling, nor to maintain at length, 
that it does not tarnish the character of a people to acknow- 
ledge a standard of honor. Whatever evils may arise from 
it, however, they cannot be attributed to Slavery, since the same 
custom prevails both in France and England. Few of your 
Prime Ministers, of the last half-centmy even, have escaped 
the contagion, I believe. The affrays, of which so much is 
said, and in which rifles, bowie-knives and pistols are so prom- 
*10 



114 HAMMONDS LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

inent, occur mostly in the frontier States of the South-West. 
They are naturally incidental to the condition of society, as it 
exists in many sections of these recently settled countries, and 
-will as naturally cease in due time. Adventurers from the 
older States, and from Europe, as desperate in character as 
they are in fortune, congregate in these wild regions, jostling 
one another and often forcing the peaceable and honest into 
rencontres in self-defence. Slavery has nothing to do with 
these things. Stability and peace are the first desires of 
every slave-holder, and the true tendency of the system. It 
could not possibly exist amid the eternal anarchy and civil 
broils of the ancient Spanish dominions in America. And 
. for this very reason, domestic Slavery has ceased there. So 
far from encouraging strife, such scenes of riot and bloodshed, 
as have within the last few years disgraced our Northern 
cities, and as you have lately witnessed in Birmingham and 
Bristol and Wales, not only never have occurred, but I will 
venture to say, never will occur in our slave-holding States. 
The only thing that can create a mob (as you might call it) here, 
is the appearance of an abolitionist, whom the people assemble 
to chastise. And this is no more of a mob, than a rally of 
shepherds to chase a wolf out of their pastures would be 
one. 

But we are swindlers and repudiators ! Pennsylvania is not 
a slave State. A majority of the States which have failed to 
meet their obligations punctually are non-slave-holding ; and 
two-thirds of the debt said to be repudiated is owed by these 
States. Many of the States of this Union are heavily encum- 
bered with debt — none so hopelessly as England. Pennsyl- 
vania owes 822 for each inhabitant — England 8222, counting 
her paupers in. Nor has there been any repudiation definite 
and final, of a lawful debt, that I am aware of. A few States 
have failed to pay some instalments of interest. The extra- 



115 

ordinary financial difficulties which occurred a few years ago 
will account for it. Time will set all things rio-ht again. 
Every dollar of both principal and interest, owed by any 
State, North or South, will be ultimately paid, unless the abo- 
lition of Slavery overwhelms us all in one common ruin. 
But have no other nations failed to pay ? When were the 
French Assignats redeemed ? How much interest did your 
National Bank pay on its immense circulation, from 1*797 to 
1821, during which period that circulation was inconvertible, 
and for the time repudiated ? How much of your national 
debt has been incurred for money borrowed to meet the inter- 
est on it, thus avoiding delinquency in detail, by insuring inevi- 
table bankruptcy and repudiation in the end ? And what sort of 
operation was that by which your present Ministry recently 
expunged a handsome amount of that debt, by substituting, 
through a process just not compulsory, one species of security 
for another? I am well aware that the faults of others do 
not excuse our own, but when failings are charged to Slavery, 
which are shown to occur to equal extent where it does not 
exist, surely Slavery must be acquitted of the accusation. 

It is roundly asserted, that we are not so well educated nor 
so religious here as elsewhere. I will not go into tedious 
statistical statements on these subjects. Nor have I, to tell 
the truth, much confidence in the details of what are com- 
monly set forth as statistics. As toeducation^^ 
bably admit t hat slave-h olders should have more leisurejbr 



m ental cultu reJb Qn m^! f peopjg. And 1 believe it is charged 
against them, that they are peculiarly fond of power, and am- 
bitious of honors. If this be so, as all the power and honors 
of this country are won mainly by intellectual superiority, it 
might be fairly presumed, that slave-holders would not be 
neglectful of education. In proof of the accuracy of this pre- 
sumption, I point you to the facts, that our Presidential chair 



116 HAMMONDS LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

has been occupied for forty-four out of fifty-six years, by slave- 
holders ; that another has been recently elected to fill it for 
four more, over an opponent who was a slave-holder also ; 
and that in the Federal Offices and both Ilouses of Congress, 
considerably more than a due proportion of those acknow- 
ledged to stand in the first rank are from the South. In this 
arena, the intellects of the free and slave States meet in full 
and fair competition. Nature must have been unusually 
bountiful to us, or we have been at least reasonably assiduous 
in the cultivation of such gifts as she has bestowed — unless 
indeed you refer our superiority to moral qualities, which I 
am sure you will not. More wealthy we are not ; nor would 
mere wealth avail in such rivalry. 

The piety of the South is unobtrusive. We think it proves 
but little, though it is a confident thing for a man to claim 
that he stands higher in the estimation of his Creator, and is 
-inner than his neighbor. If vociferation is to carry 
the question of religion, the North, and probabl} 7 the Scotch, 
have it. Our sects are few, harmonious, pretty much united 
among themselves, and pursue their avocations in humble 
peace. In fact, our professors of religion seem to think — 
whether correctly or not — that it is their duty "to do good in 
secret," and to carry their holy comforts to the heart of each 
individual, without reference to class or color, for his special 
enjoyment, and not with a view to exhibit their zeal before the 
world. So far as numbers are concerned, I believe our cler- 
gymen, when called on to make a showing, have never had 
occasion to blush, if comparisons were drawn between the 
free and slave States. And although our presses do not teem 
with controversial pamphlets, nor our pulpits shake with ex- 
communicating thunders, the daily walk of our religious com- 
municants furnishes, apparently, as little food for gossip as is 
to be found in most other regions. It may be regarded as a 



hammond's letters on slavery. 117 

mark of our want of excitability— though that is a quality 
accredited to us in an eminent degree — that few of the re- 
markable religious Isms of the present day have taken root 
among us. We have been so irreverent as to laugh at Mor- 
monism and Millerism, which, have created such commotions 
farther North ; and modern prophets have no honor in our 
country. Shakers, Rappists, Dunkers, Socialists, Fourrierists 
and the like, keep themselves afar off. Even Puseyism has 
not yet moved us. You may attribute this to our domestic 
Slavery if you choose. I believe you would do so justly. 
There is no material here for such characters to operate upon. 

But your grand charge is, that licentiousness in intercourse yf 
between the sexes, is a prominent trial of our social system, 
and that it necessarily arises from Slavery. This is a favorite 
theme with the abolitionists, male and female. Folios have 
been written on it. It is a common observation, that there is 
no subject on which ladies of eminent virtue so much delight 
to dwell, and on which in especial learned old maids, like Miss 
Martineau, linger with such an insatiable relish. They expose 
it in the slave States with the most minute observance and 
endless iteration. Miss Martineau, with peculiar gusto, relates 
a series of scandalous stories, which would have made Bocca- 
cio jealous of her pen, but which are so ridiculously false as 
to leave no doubt, that some wicked wag, knowing she would 
write a book, has furnished her materials — a game too often 
played on tourists in this country. The constant recurrence * 
of the female abolitionists to this topic, and their bitterness in 
regard to it, cannot fail to suggest to even the most charitable 
mind, that 

" Such rage without betrays the fires within." — 
Nor are their immaculate coadjutors of the other sex, though ' 
perhaps less specific in their charges, less violent in their de- 
nunciations. But recently in your Island, a clergyman has, 



118 



at a public meeting, stigmatized the whole slave region as a 
" brothel." Do these people thus cast stones, being " without 
sin ?" Or do they only 

" Compound for sins they arc inclined to 
By damning those they have no mind to."' 

Alas that David and Solomon should be allowed to repose in 
peace — that Leo should be almost canonized, and Luther 
more than sainted — that in our own day courtezans should be 
formally licensed in Paris, and tenements in London rented 
for years to women of the town for the benefit of the Church, 
with the knowledge of the Bishop — and the poor slave States 
of America alone pounced upon, and offered up as a holocaust 
on the altar of immaculateness, to atone for the abuse of 
natural instinct by all mankind ; and if not actually consumed,^/ 
at least exposed, anathematized and held up to scorn, by those 
who 

« Write, 
Or with a rival's or an eunuch's spite." 

But I do not intend to admit that this charge is just or 
true. Without meaning to profess uncommon modesty, I 
will say that I wish the topic could be avoided. I am of 
opinion, and I doubt not every right-minded man will concur, 
that the public exposure and discussion of this vice, even to 
rebuke, invariably does more harm than good ; and that if it 
cannot be checked by instilling pure and virtuous sentiments, 
it is far worse than useless to attempt to do it, by exhibiting 
its deformities. I may not, however, pass it over ; nor ought 
I to feel any delicacy in examining a question, to which the 
slave-holder is invited and challenged by clergymen and vir- 
gins. So far from allowing, then, that licentiousness pervades 
this region, I broadly assert, and I refer to the records of our 
courts, to the public press, and to the knowledge of all who 
have ever lived here, that among our white population thereV^ 



119 



are fewer cases of divorce, separation, crim. con., seduction, 
rape and bastardy, than among any other five millions of peo- 
ple on the civilized earth. And this fact I believe will be 
conceded by the abolitionists of this country themselves. I 
am almost willing to refer it to them and submit to their de- 
cision on it. I would not hesitate to do so, if I thought them 
capable of an impartial judgment on any matter where Slavery 
is in question. But it is said, that the licentiousness consists 
in the constant intercourse between white males and colored 
females. One of your heavy charges against us has been, 
that we regard and treat these people as brutes ; you now */ 
charge us with habitually taking them to our bosoms. I will 
not comment on the inconsistency of these accusations. I 
will not deny that some intercourse of the sort does take place- 
Its character and extent, however, are grossly and atrociously 
exaggerated. No authority, divine or human, has yet been 
found sufficient to arrest all such irregularities among men. 
But it is a known fact, that they are perpetrated here, for the 
most part, in the cities. • Very few mulattoes are reared on 
our plantations. In the cities, a large proportion of the in- 
habitants do not own slaves. A still larger proportion are 
natives of the North, or foreigners. They should share, and 
justly, too, an equal part in this sin with the slave-holders. 
Facts cannot be ascertained, or I doubt not, it would appear 
that they are the chief offenders. If the truth be otherwise, 
then persons from abroad have stronger prejudices against the 
African race than we have. Be this as it may, it is well 
known, that this intercourse is regarded in our society as high- 
ly disreputable. If carried on habitually, it seriously affects y 
a man's standing, so far as it is known ; and he who takes a * 
colored mistress — with rare and extraordinary exceptions — 
loses caste at once. You will say that one exception should j 
damn our whole country. How much less criminal is it to take^/ 



] i Hammond's letters on slavery. 

a white mistress ? In your eyes it should be at least an equal 
offence. Yet look around you at home, from the cottage to 
the throne, and count how many mistresses are kept in un- 
blushing notoriety, without loss of caste. Such cases are 
nearly unknown here, and down even to the lowest walks of 
life, it is almost invariably fatal to a man's position and pros- 
pects to keep a mistress openly, whether white or black. 
What Miss Martineau relates of a young man's purchasing a 
colored concubine from a lady, and avowing his designs, is too 
absurd even for contradiction. No person would dare to al-^ 
lude to such a subject, in such a manner, to any decent female 
in this country. 

After all, however, the number of the mixed breed, in pro- 
portion to that of the black, is infinitely small, and out of the 
towns next to nothing. And when it is considered that the 
African race has been among us for two hundred years, and 
that those of the mixed breed continually intermarry — often 
rearing large families— it is a decided proof of our continence, 
that so few comparatively are to be found. Our misfortunes 
are two-fold. From the prolific propagation of these mongrels 
among themselves, we are liable to be charged by tourists 
with delinquencies where none have been committed, while, 
where one has been, it cannot be concealed. Color marks in- 
delibly the offence, and reveals it to every eye. Conceive 
that, even in your virtuous and polished country, if every bas- 
tard, through all the circles of your social system, was thus 
branded by nature and known to all, what shocking develop- 
ments might there not be ! How little indignation might your 
saints have to spare for the licentiousness of the slave region. 
But I have done with this disgusting topic. And I think I 
may justly conclude, after all the scandalous charges which v 
tea-table gossip, and long-gowned hypocrisy have brought 
against the slave-holders, that a people whose men are prover- 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 121 

bially brave, intellectual and hospitable, and whose women are * 
unaffectedly chaste, devoted to domestic life, and happy in it, 
can neither be degraded nor demoralized, whatever their in- 
stitutions may be. My decided opinion is, that our system of 
Slavery contributes largely to the development and culture 
of these high and noble qualities. •"" 

In an e conomica l point of view — which I will not omit — 
Slavery presents some difficulties. As a general rule, I agree 
it must be admitted, that free labor is cheaper than slave labor. 
It is a fallacy to suppose that ours is unpaid labor. The slavey 
himself must be paid for, and thus his labor is all purchased 
at once, and for no trifling sum. His price was, in the first 
])lace, paid mostly to your countrymen, and assisted in build- 
ing up some of those colossal English fortunes, since illustrated 
by patents of nobility, and splendid piles of architecture, 
stained and cemented, if you like the expression, with the 
blood of kidnapped innocents ; but loaded with no heavier 
curses than abolition and its begotten fanaticisms have brought 
upon your land — some of them fulfilled, some yet to be. But 
besides the first cost of the slave, he must be fed and clothed, 
well fed and well clothed, if not for humanity's sake, that he 
may do good work, retain health and life, and rear a family 
to supply his place. When old or sick, he is a clear expense, 
and so is the helpless portion of his family. No poor law 
provides for him when unable to work, or brings up his chil- 
dren for our service when we need them. These are all heavy 
charges on slave labor. Hence, in all countries where the 
denseness of the population has reduced it to a matter of per- 
fect certainty, that labor can be obtained, whenever wanted, 
and the laborer be forced, by sheer necessity, to hire for the 
smallest pittance that will keep soul and body together, and 
rags upon his back while in victual employment — dependent 
at all other times on alms or poor rates — in all such countries 
11 



122 iiammond's letters on slavery. 

it is found cheaper to pay this pittance, than to clothe, feed, 
nurse, support through childhood, and pension in old age, a 
race of slaves. Indeed, the advantage is so great as speedily 
to compensate for the loss of the value of the slave. And I 
have no hesitation in saying, that if I could cultivate my lands 
on these terms, I would, without a word, resign my slaves, 
provided they could be properly disposed of. But the ques- 
tion is, whether free or slave labor is cheapest to us in this 
country, at this time, situated as we are. And it is decided at 
once by the fact that we cannot avail ourselves of any other 
than slave labor. We neither have, nor can we procure, other 
labor to any extent, or on anything like the terms mentioned. 
We must, therefore, content ourselves with our dear labor, 
under the consoling reflection that what is lost to us, is gained 
to humanity; and that, inasmuch as our slave costs us more 
than your free man costs you, by so much is he better off. 
You will promptly say, emancipate your slaves, and then you 
will have free labor on suitable terms. That might be if there 
were five hundred where there now is one, and the continent, 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, was as densely populated as 
your Island. But until that comes to pass, no labor can be 
procured in America on the terms you haveTt. 

While I thus freely admit that to the individual proprietor 
slave labor is dearer than free, I do not mean to admit as 
equally clear that it is dearer to the community and to the 
State. Though it is certain that the slave is, a far greater 
consumer than your laborer, the year round, yet your pauper 
system is costly and wasteful. Supported by your community 
at large, it is not administered by your hired agents with that 
interested care and economy — not to speak of humanity — 
which mark the management of ours, by each proprietor, for 
his own non-effectives ; and is both more expensive to those 
who pay, and less beneficial to those who receive its bounties. 



Hammond's letters op slavery. 123 

Besides this, Slavery is rapidly filling up our country with a 
hardy and healthy race, peculiarly adapted to our climate and 
productions, and conferring signal political and social advan- 
tages on us as a people, to -which I have already referred. 

I have yet to reply to the main ground on which you and 
your coadjutors rely for the overthrow of our system of Slave- 
ry. Failing in all your attempts to prove that it is sinful in 
its nature, immoral in its effects, a political evil, and profitless 
to those who maintain it, you appeal to the sympathies of 
mankind, and attempt to arouse the world against us by the 
most shocking charges of tyranny and cruelty. You begin 
by a vehement denunciation of " the irresponsible power of 
one man over his fellow men." The question of the respon- 
sibility of power is a vast one. It is the great political ques- 
tion of modern times. Whole nations divide off upon it and 
establish different fundamental systems of government. That 
" responsibility," which to one set of millions seems amply 
sufficient to check the government, to the support of whichN 
they devote their lives and fortunes, appears to another set of 
millions a mere mockery of restraint. And accordingly as 
the opinions of these millions differ, they honor each other 
with the epithets of " serfs " or " anarchists." It is ridiculous 
to introduce such an idea as this into the discussion of a mere 
domestic institution ; but since you have introduced it, I deny 
that the power of the slave-holder in America is "irresponsi- 
ble." He is responsible to God. He is responsible to the 
world — a responsibility which abolitionists do not intend to 
allow him to evade — and in acknowledgment of which, \\J 
write you this letter. He is responsible to the community in 
which he lives, and to the laws under which he enjoys his 
civil rights. Those laws do not permit him to kill, to maim, 
or to punish beyond certain limits, or to overtask, or to refuse 
to feed and clothe his slave. In short, they forbid him to be 



I 'I 

tyrannical or cruel. If any of the e law bate grown ob o 

lete, i! ia becau e they are 'Mora violated, thai they are 

forgotten. You have di interred one of them, from b compi 

lation by bo Judge Stroud of Philadelphia, to stigmatize its 

inadequate penalties for killing, maiming, &c four object 

/appears t<> be vou can have do other to produce the im- 
I'H ion, that i< mu I be often violated on account of its in uf 
ficiency. 5Tou say an much, and that il marks our estimate 
of the slave. 5Tou forgel to state that this law was enacted 
i>\ Englishmen, and <"'l\ indicates (heir opinion "l" the repa- 
ration due for th< e offena . Ours is proved by the fact, 
though perhaps unknown to Judge Stroud or your elf, that 
we have essentially altered this law; and the murder of ;i 
slave has for raanj years been punishable with death in this 
State. Ami bo il i , l believe, in most or all the slave States. 
jfou eem well aware, however, thai laws have been recently 
pa ed in .-ill the e State , making it penal to teach slaves to 
read. Do you Know whal occasioned their passage, and ren- 
ders their stringent enforcement necei aryf I can tell you. 
J! was the abolition agitation, It' the slave h Dot allowed to 

Jread his bible, the sin rests opon the abolitionists; for they 
ad prepared t>> furnish him with a key to it, which would 

make it, doI a I b of hope, and love, and peace, bul of de 

pair, hatred and blood; \\lii<'li would convert the reader, Dot 
into b christian, but a demon. To preserve him from such a 
horrid destiny, it is b sacred duty which we owe to our slaves, 
in. i less than to ourselves, to interpose the most de< 
means. It' the Catholics deem it wrong to trust the bible to 
the hands of ignorance, shall we be excommunicated because 
we will ii"! give it, and with it the corrupt and fatal commen- 
taries of the abolitionist , to our slaves ? Allow our slaves to 
read your writing i, i timulating them to cut our. throats ! < Ian 
you believe us to be such unspeakable i 



12.", 

Home urn h ■ ani nihil a i 

i 

ill do 
try perl 
tempi 

win ; 

and that I am : 

whom God I I, therefore, 

,'l'T the • 
If and f*:!i 

4 all, and 1 am convinced tb; 

proper kindnet §. Ii 
amow m them. Of 

the only ( 
conld derive from the oppi 
- making m< 

i ountrymen d< Q you 

- lare that ■■, it for the 

; being inhuman, i \r, Pitt 

conld i be idea ,! 

lefod treatment I - 

of the middle pa Mr Pitt ira right in tl 

'1, under your tuition, in riot, pel 

n a temj Mp of 

perfi ct than other men* 
] 
not, at all tl rain them. rf< ither do J. 

n ' 



126 Hammond's letters on slavery. 

and friends. And in each of these relations, as serious suffer- 
ing as frequently arises from uncontrolled passions, as ever 
* does in that of master and slave, and with as little chance of 
indemnity. Yet you would not on that account break them 
up. I have no hesitation in saying that our slaveholders are 
kind masters, as men usually are kind husbands, parents and 
friends — as a general rule, kinder. A bad master — he who 
overworks his slaves, provides ill for them, or treats them with 
undue severity — loses the esteem and respect of his fellow- 
citizens to as great an extent as he would for the violation of 
any of his social and most of his moral obligations. What 
the most perfect plan of management would be, is a problem 

(hard to solve. From the commencement of Slavery in this 
country, this subject has occupied the minds of all slavehold- 
ers, as much as the improvement of the general condition of 
mankind has those of the most ardent philanthropists ; and 
the greatest progressive amelioration of the system has been 
effected. You yourseF acknowledge that in the early part of 
your career you were exceedingly anxious for the immediate 
abolition of the slave trade, lest those engaged in it should so 
mitigate its evils as to destroy the force of your arguments 
and facts.. The improvement you then dreaded has gone on 
steadily here, and would doubtless have taken place in the 
slave trade, but for the measures adopted to suppress it. 

Of late years we have been not only annoyed, but greatly 
embarrassed, in this matter, by the abolitionists. We have 
been compellec] to curtail' some privileges; we have been de- 
barred from granting new ones. In the nice of discussions 
which aim at loosening all ties between master and slave, we 
have in some measure to abandon our efforts to attach them 
to us, and control them through their affections and pride. 
We have to rely more and more on the power of fear. We 
must, in all our intercourse with them, assert and maintain 



127 



strict mastery, and impress it on them that they are slaves. 
This is painful to us, and certainly no present advantage to 
them. But it is the direct consequence of the abolition agi- 
tation. We are determined to continue masters, and to do so 
we have to draw the rein tighter and tighter day by day to 
be assured that we hold them in complete check. How far 
this process will go on, depends wholly and solely on the 
abolitionists. When they desist, we can relax. We may not 
before. I do not mean by all this to say that we are in a 
state of actual alarm and fear of our slaves ; but under exist- 
ing circumstances we should be ineffably stupid not to in- 
crease our vigilance and strengthen our hands. You see 
some of the fruits of your labors. I speak freely and candid- 
ly — not as a colonist, who, though a slaveholder, has a mas- 
ter ; but as a free white man, holding, under God, and resolv- 
ed to hold, my fate in my own hands ; and I assure you that 
my sentiments, and feelings, and determinations, are those of 
every slaveholder in this country. 

The research and ingenuity of the abolitionists, aided by 
the invention of runaway slaves — in which faculty, so far as 
improvizing falsehood goes, the African race is without a rival 
— have succeeded in shocking the world with a small number 
of pretended instances of our barbarity. The only wonder is, 
that considering the extent of our country, the variety of our 
population, its fluctuating character, and the publicity of all 
our transactions, the number of cases is so small. It speaks 
well for us. Yet of these, many are false, all highly colored, 
some occurring half a century, most of them many years ago ; 
and no doubt a large proportion of them perpetrated by 
foreigners. With a few rare exceptions, the emigrant Scotch 
and English are the worst masters among; us, and next to 
them our Northern fellow-citizens. Slaveholders born and 
bred here are always more humane to slaves, and those who 



128 Hammond's letters on - slavery. 

/ have grown up to a large inheritance of them, the most so of 
any — showing clearly that the effect of the system is to foster 
kindly feelings. I do not mean so much to impute innate 
inhumanity to foreigners, as to show that they come here 
with false notions of the treatment usual and necessary for 
slaves, and that newly acquired power here, as everywhere 
else, is apt to be abused. I cannot enter into a detailed ex- 
amination of the cases stated by the abolitionists. It would 
be disgusting, and of little avail. I know nothing of them. I 
have seen nothing like them, though born and bred here, and 
have rarely heard of anything at nil to be compared to them. 
Permit me to say that T think most of your facts must have 
been drawn from the West Indies, where undoubtedly slaves 
wore treated much more harshly than with us. This was 
owing to a variety of causes, which might, if necessary, be 
stated. One was, that they had at first to deal more exten- 
sively with barbarians fresh from the wilds of Africa; another, 
and a leading one, the absenteeism of proprietors. Agents 
are always more unfeeling than owners, whether placed over 
West Indian or American slaves, or Irish tenantry. We feel 
this evil greatly even here. You describe the use of thumb 
screws, as one mode of punishment among us. I doubt if a 
thumb screw can be found in America. I never saw or heard 
of one in this country. Stocks are rarely used by private in- 
dividuals, and confinement still more seldom, though both are 
common punishments for whites, all the world over. I think 
they should be more frequently resorted to with slaves, as 
substitutes for flogging, which I consider the most injurious 
and least efficacious mode of punishing them for serious of- 
fences. It is not degrading, and unless excessive, occasions 
little pain. You may be a little astonished, after all the 
flourishes that have been made about "cart whips," &c, when 
I say flogging is not the most degrading punishment in the 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 129 

world. It may be so to a white man in most countries, but 
Low is it to the white boy ? That necessary coadjutor of the 
schoolmaster, the " birch," is never thought to have rendered 
infamous the unfortunate victim of pedagogue ire ; nor did 
Solomon in his wisdom dream that he was counselling parents 
to debase their offspring, when he exhorted them not to spoil 
the child by sparing the rod. Pardon me for recurring to the 
now exploded ethics of the Bible. Custom, which, you will 
perhaps agree, makes most things in this world good or evil, 
has removed all infamy from the punishment of the lash to 
the slave. Your blood boils at the recital of stripes inflicted 
on a man; and you think you should be frenzied to see your 
own child flogged. Yet see how completely this is ideal, 
arising from the fashions of society. You doubtless submit- 
ted to the rod yourself, in other years, when the smart was 
perhaps as severe as it would be now ; and you have never 
been guilty of the folly of revenging yourself on the Precep- 
tor, who, in the plenitude of his "irresponsible power," thought 
proper to chastise your son. So it is with the negro, and the 
negro father. 

As to chains and irons, they are rarely used ; never, I be- 
lieve, except in cases of running away. You will admit that 
if we pretend to own slaves, they must not be permitted to 
abscond whenever they see fit ; and that if nothing else will 
prevent it, these means must be resorted to. See the inhu- 
manity necessarily arising from Slavery, you will exclaim. 
Are such restraints imposed on no other class of people, giving 
no more offence ? Look to your army and navy. If your 
seamen, impressed from their peaceful occupations, and your 
soldiers, recruited at the gin-shops — both of them as much 
kidnapped as the most unsuspecting victim of the slave trade, 
and doomed to a far more wretched fate — if these men mani- 
fest a propensity to desert, the heaviest manacles are their 



$130 hammond's letters on slavery. 

mildest punishment. It is most commonly death, after sum- 
mary trial. But armies and navies, you say, are indispen- 
sable, and must be kept up at every sacrifice. I answer, 
that they are no more indispensable than Slavery is to us — 
and to you ; for you have enough of it in your country, though 
the form and name differ from ours. 

Depend upon it that many things, and in regard to our 
slaves, most things which appear revolting at a distance, and 
to slight reflection, would, on a nearer view and impartial 
comparison with the customs and conduct of the rest of man- 
kind, strike you in a very different light. Remember that 
on our estates we dispense with the whole machinery of pub- 
lic police and public courts of justice. Thus we try, decide, 
and execute the sentences, in thousands of cases, which in 
other countries would go into the courts. Hence, most of the 
acts of our alleged cruelty, which have any foundation in 
truth. AVhether our patriarchal mode of administering jus- 
tice is less humane than the Assizes, can only be determined 
by careful enquiry and comparison. But this is never done 
by the abolitionists. All our punishments are the outrages of 
"irresponsible power." If a man steals a pig in England, he 
is transported — torn from wife, children, parents, and sent to 
the antipodes, infamous, and an outcast forever, though pro- 
bably he took from the superabundance of his neighbor to 
s?ve the lives of his famishing little ones. If one of our well 
fed negroes, merely for the sake of fresh meat, steals a pig, he 
gets perhaps forty stripes. If one of your cottagers breaks 
into another's house, he is hung for burglary. If a slave does 
the same here, a few lashes, or it may be, a few hours in the 
stocks, settles the matter. Are our courts or yours the most 
humane? If Slavery were not in question, you would doubt- 
less say ours is mistaken lenity. Perhaps it often is ; and 
slaves too lightly dealt with sometimes grow daring. Occa- 



13]| 

sionally, though rarely, and almost always in consequence of 
excessive indulgence, an individual rebels. This is the hish- 
est ciime he can commit. It is treason. It strikes at the 
root of our whole system. His life is justly forfeited, though 
it is never intentionally taken, unless after trial in our public 
courts. Sometimes, however, in capturing, or in self-defence, 
he is unfortunately killed. A legal investigation always fol- 
lows. But, terminate as it may, the abolitionists raise a hue 
and cry, and another "shocking case" is held up to the in- 
dignation of the world by tender-hearted male and female 
philanthropists, who would have thought all right had the 
master's throat been cut, and would have triumphed in it. 

I cannot go into a detailed comparison between the penal- 
ties inflicted on a slave in our patriarchal courts, and those of 
the Courts of Sessions, to which freemen are sentenced in all 
civilized nations ; but I know well that if there is any fault in 
our criminal code, it is that of excessive mildness. 

Perhaps a few general facts will best illustrate the treat- 
ment this race receives at our hands. It is acknowledged that 
it increases at least as rapidly as the white. I believe it is an 
established law, that population thrives in proportion to its 
comforts. But when it is considered that these people are not 
recruited by immigration from abroad, as the whites are, and 
that they are usually settled on our richest and least healthy 
lands, the fact of their equal comparative increase and great- 
er longevity, outweighs a thousand abolition falsehoods, in 
favor of the leniency and providence of our management of 
them. It is also admitted that there are incomparably fewer u 
cases of insanity and suicide among them than among the 
whites. The fact is, that among the slaves of the African 
race these things are almost wholly unknown. However fre- 
quent suicide may have been among those brought from Afri- 
ca, I can say that in my time I cannot remember to have 



§3]l hammond's letters on slavery. 

known or beard of a single instance of deliberate self-destruc- 
tion, and but of one of suicide at all. As to insanity, I have 
seen but one permanent case of it, and that twenty years ago. 
It cannot be doubted that among three millions of people there 
must be some insane and some suicides ; but I will venture 
to say that more cases of both occur annually among every 
hundred thousand of the population of Great Britain, than 
among all our slaves. Can it be possible, then, that they exist 
in that state of abject misery, goaded by constant injuries, 
outraged in their affections, and worn down with hardships, 
which the abolitionists depict, and so many ignorant and 
thoughtless persons religiously believe I 

With regard to the separation of husbands and wives, pa- 
rents and children, nothing can be more untrue than the 
inferences drawn from what is so constantly harped on by 
abolitionists. Some painful instances perhaps may occur. 
Very few that can be prevented. It is, audit always has been, 
an object of prime consideration with our slaveholders, to keep 
families together. Negroes are themselves both perverse and 
comparatively indifferent about this matter. It is a singular 
trait, that they almost invariably prefer forming connexions 
with slaves belonging to other masters, and at some distance. 
It is, therefore, impossible to prevent separations sometimes, 
by the removal of one owner, his death, or failure, and dis- 
persion of his property. In all such cases, however, every 
reasonable effort is made to keep the parties together, if they 
desire it. And the negroes forming these connexions, know- 
ing the chances of their premature dissolution, rarely com- 
plain more than we all do of the inevitable strokes of fate. 
Sometimes it happens that a negro prefers to give up his 
family rather than separate from his master. I have known 
such instances. As to wilfully selling off a husband, or wife, 
or child, I believe it is rarely, very rarely done, except when 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 133 

some offence lias been committed demanding "transporta- 
tion." At sales of estates, and even at Sheriff's sales, they 
are always, if possible, sold in families. On the whole, not- 
withstanding the migratory character of our population, I 
believe there are more families among our slaves, who have 
lived and died together without losing a single member from, 
their circle, except by the process of nature, and in the enjoy- 
ment of constant, uninterrupted communion, than have flour- 
ished in the same space of time, and among the same num- 
ber of civilized people in modern times. And to sum up all, 
if pleasure is correctly defined to be the absence of pain — 
which, so far as the great body of mankind is concerned, is 
undoubtedly its true definition — I believe our slaves are the 
happiest three millions of human beings on whom the sun 
shines. Into their Eden is coming Satan in the guise of an 
abolitionist 

As regards their religious condition, it is well known that 
a majority of the communicants of the Methodist and Baptist 
churches of the South are colored. Almost everywhere they 
have precisely the same opportunities of attending worship 
that the whites have, and, besides special occasions for them- 
selves exclusively, which they prefer. In many places not so 
accessible to clergymen in ordinary, missionaries are sent, and 
mainly supported by their masters, for the particular benefit 
of the slaves. There are none I imagine who may not, if they 
like, hear the gospel preached at least once a month — most 
of them twice a month, and very many every week. In our 
thinly settled country the whites fare no better. But in ad- 
dition to this, on plantations of any size, the slaves who have 
joined the church are formed into a class, at the head of 
which is placed one of their number, acting as deacon or 
leader, who is also sometimes a licensed preacher. This class 
assembles for religious exercises weekly, semi- weekly, or often- 
12 



134 hammond's letters on slavery. 

er, if the members choose. In some parts, also, Sunday 
schools fur blacks are established, and Bible classes are orally 
instructed by discreet and pious persons, Now where will 
you find a laboring population possessed of greater religious 
advantages than these ? Not in London, I am sure, where it 
is known that your churches, chapels, and religions meeting- 
houses, of all sorts, cannot contain one-half of the inhabitants. 
I have admitted, without hesitation, what it would be un- 
true and profitless to deny, that slaveholders are responsible 
to the world for the humane treatment of the fellow-beings 
whom God has placed in their hands. I think it would be 
only fair for you to admit, what is equally undeniable, that 
every man in independent circumstances, all the world <>wr, 
and every government, is to th^ same extent responsible to 
the whole human family, for the condition of the poor and 
laboring classes in their own country, and around them, 
wherever they may be placed, to whom God has denied the 
advantages he has given themselves. If so, it would naturally 
seem the duty of true humanity and rational philanthropy to 
devote their time and labor, their thoughts, writings and 
charity, first to the objects placed as it were under their own 
immediate charge. And it must be regarded as a clear eva- 
sion and skilful neglect of this cardinal duty, to pass from 
those whose destitute situation they can plainly see, minutely 
examine and efficiently relieve, to enquire after the condition 
of others in no way entrusted to their care, to exaggerate 
evils of which they cannot be cognizant, to expend all their 
sympathies and exhaust all their energies on these remote 
objects of their unnatural, not to say dangerous, benevolence; 
and finally, to calumniate, denounce, and endeavor to excite 
the indignation of the world against their unoffending fellow- 
creatures for not hastening, under their dictation, to redress 
wrongs which are stoutly and truthfully' denied, while they 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 135 

themselves go but little farther in alleviating those chargeable 
on them than openly and unblushingly to acknowledge them. 
There may be indeed a sort of merit in doing so much as to 
make such an acknowledgment, but it must be very modest 
if it expects appreciation. 

Now I affirm, that in Great Britain the poor and laboring- 
classes of your own race and color, not only your fellow- 
being?, but your fellow-citizens, are more miserable and de- 
graded, morally and physically, than our slaves ; to be eleva- 
ted to the actual condition of whom, would be to these, your 
fellow-citizens, a most glorious act of emancipation. And I 
also affirm, that the poor and laboring classes of our older 
free States would not be in a much more enviable condition, 
but for our Slavery. One of their own Senators has declared 
in the United States Senate, " that the repeal of the Tariff 
would reduce New-England to a howling wilderness." And 
the American Tariff is neither more nor less than a system by 
which the slave States are plundered for the benefit of those 
States which do not tolerate Slavery. 

To prove what I say of Great Britain to be true, I make the 
following extracts from the Reports of Commissioners ap- 
pointed by Parliament, and published by order of the House 
of Commons. I can make but few and short ones. But simi- 
lar quotations might be made to any extent, and I defy you 
to deny that these specimens exhibit the real condition of your 
operatives in every branch of your industry. There is of 
course a variety in their sufferings. But the same incredible 
amount of toil, frightful destitution, and utter want of morals, 
characterize the lot of every class of them. 

Collieries. — " I wish to call the attention of the Board to 
the pits about Brampton. The seams are so thin that several 
of them have only two feet headway to all the working. They 
are worked altogether by boys from eight to twelve years of 



136 iiammoxd's letters on slavery. 

ago, on all-fours, with a dog belt and chain. The passages 
being neither ironed nor wooded, and often an inch or two 
thick with mud. In Mr. Barnes' pit these poor boys have to 
drag the barrows with one hundred weight of coal or slack 
sixty times a day sixty yards, and the empty barrows hack, 
without once straightening their backs, unless they choose to 
stand under the shaft, and run the risk of having their heads 
broken by a falling coal.*' — Report on Mines, 1842, p. 71. " In 
Shropshire the seams are no more than eighteen or twenty 
inches." — Ibid, p. 67. "At the Booth pit," says Mr. Scriven, 
" I walked, rod*-, and crept eighteen hundred yards to one of 
the n i." — Ibid. "Chokedamp, firedamp, wild tire, 

sulphur and water, at all times menace instant death to the 
laborers in these mines." " Robert North, aged 16 : Went 
into the pit at seven years of ago, to fill up skips. I drew 
about twelve months. When I drew by the girdle and chain 
my skin was broken, and the blood ran down. I durst not 
say anything. If we said anything, the butty, and the reeve, 
who works under him, would take a stick and beat us." — Ibid. 
"The usual punishment for theft is to place the culprit's head 
between the legs of one of the biggest boys, and each 
boy in the pit — sometimes there are twenty — inflicts twelve 
lashes on the back and rump with a cat." — Ibid. "Instances 
occur in which children are taken into these mines to work as 
early as four years of age, sometimes at five, not unfrequently 
at six and seven, while from eight to nine is the ordinary age 
at which these employments commence." — Ibid. " The wages 
paid at these mines is from two dollars fifty cents to seven 
dollars fifty cents per month for laborers, according to age and 
ability, and out of this they must support themselves. They 
work twelve hours a day." — Ibid. 

In Calico Printing. — " It is by no means uncommon in all 
the districts for children five or six years old to be kept at 



137 

work fourteen to sixteen hours consecutively." — Report on 
Children, 1842, p. 59. 

I could furnish extracts similar to these in regard to every 
branch of your manufactures, but I will not multiply them. 
Everybody knows that your operatives habitually labor from 
twelve to sixteen* hours, men, women, and children, and the 
men occasionally twenty hours per day. In lace-making, says 
the last quoted report, children sometimes commence work at 
two years of age. 

Destitution. — It is stated by your Commissioners that forty 
thousand persons in Liverpool, and fifteen thousand in Man- 
chester, live in cellars ; while twenty-two thousand in England 
pass the night in barns, tents, or the open air. " There have 
been found such occurrences as seven, eight, and ten persons 
in one cottage, I cannot say for one day, but for whole days, 
without a morsel of food. They have remained on their beds 
of straw for two successive days, under the impression that in 
a recumbent posture the pangs of hunger were less felt." — 
Lord Brougham 's Sjjeech, 11th July, 1842. A volume of 
frightful scenes might be quoted to corroborate the inferences 
to be necessarily drawn from the facts here stated. I will not 
add more, but pass on to the important enquiry as to 

Morals and Education. — "Elizabeth Barrett, aged 14: I 
always work without stockings, shoes, or trowsers. I wear 
nothing but a shift. I have to go up to the headings with 
the men. They are all naked there. I am got used to that." — 
Report on Mines. " As to illicit sexual intercourse it seems 
to prevail universally, and from an early period of life." " The 
evidence might have been doubled, which attest the early 
commencement of sexual and promiscuous intercourse among 
boys and girls." " A lower condition of morals, in the fullest 
sense of the term, could not, I think, be found. I do not 
mean by this that there are many more prominent vices 
12* 



138 HAMMONDS LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

among them, but that moral feelings aud sentiments do not 
exist They have no morals. 11 " Their appearance, manners, 
and moral natures — so far as the word moral can be applied 
to them — are in accordance with their half-civilized condition." 
— Report on Children. " More than half a dozen instances 
occurred in Manchester, where a man, his wife, and his wife's 
grown-up sister, habitually occupied the same bed." — Report 
on Sanitary Condition. " Robert Crucilow, aged 16:1 don't 
know anything of Moses — never heard of France. I don't 
know what America is. Never heard of Scotland or Ireland. 
Can't tell how many weeks there are in a year. There are 
twelve pence in a shilling, and twenty shillings in a pound. 
There are eight pints in a gallon of ale." — Report on Mines. 
"Ann Eggly, aged 18:1 walk about and get fresh air on Sun- 
days. I never go to church or chapel. I never h< aid of Christ 
at all." — Ibid. Others : "The Lord sent Adam and Eve on 
earth to save sinners." " I don't know who made the world; I 
never heard about God." "I don't know Jesus Christ — I 
never saw him — but 1 have seen Foster who prays about 
him." "Employer : You have expressed surprise at Thomas 
Mitchel's not hearing of God. I judge there are few colliers 
here about that have." — Ibid. I will quote no more. It is 
shocking beyond endurance to turn over your records, in 
which the condition of your laboring classes is but too faith- 
fully depicted. Could our slaves but see it, they would join 
us in lynching the abolitionists, which, by the by, they would 
not now be loth to do. We never think of imposing on them 
such labor, either in amount or kind. We never put them to 
any icorlc, under ten, more generally at twelve years of age, 
and then the very lightest. Destitution is absolutely un- 
known — never did a slave starve in America ; while in moral 
sentiments and feelings, in religious information, and even in 
general intelligence, they are infinitely the superiors of your 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 139 

operatives. "When you look around you, how dare you talk 
to us before the world of Slavery ? For the condition of 
your wretched laborers, you, and every Briton who is not one 
of them, are responsible before God and man. If you are 
really humane, philanthropic, and charitable, here are objects 
for you. Eelieve them. Emancipate them. Raise them from 
the condition of brutes, to the level of human beings — of 
American slaves, at least. Do not for an instant suppose that 
the name of being freemen is the slightest comfort to them, 
situated as they are, or that the bombastic boast that " who- 
ever touches British soil stands redeemed, regenerated, and 
disenthralled," can meet with anything but the ridicule and 
contempt of mankind, while that soil swarms, both on and 
under its surface, with the most abject and degraded wretches 
that ever bowed beneath the oppressor's yoke. 

I have said that Slavery is an established and inevitable 
condition to human society. I do not speak of the name, 
but the fact. The Marquis of Normanby has lately declared 
your operatives to be " in effect slaves" Can it be denied I 
Probably, for such philanthropists as your abolitionists care 
nothing for facts. They deal in terms and fictions. It is the 
word '• slavery" which shocks their tender sensibilities ; and 
their imaginations associate it with " hydras and chimeras 
dire." The thing itself, in its most hideous reality, passes 
daily under their view unheeded — a familiar face, touching no 
chord of shame, sympathy or indignation. Yet so brutalizing 
is your iron bondage that the English operative is a bye-word 
throuo\h the world. When favoring fortune enables him to 
escape his prison house, both in Europe and America he is 
shunned. With all the skill which fourteen hours of daily 
labor from the tenderest age has ground into him, his discon- 
tent, which habit has made second nature, and his depraved 
propensities, running riot when freed from his wonted fetters, 



140 hammond's letters on slavery. 

prevent his employment whenever it is not a matter of neces- 
sity. If we derived no other benefit from African Slavery in 
the Southern States than that it deterred your freedmen from 

coming- hither, I should regard it as an inestimable blessing. 

And how unaccountable is that philanthropy, which closes 
its eyes upon such a state of things as you have at home, and 
turns its blurred vision to our affairs beyond the Atlantic, 
meddling with matters which no way concern them — pre- 
siding, as you have lately done, at meetings to denounce the 
" iniquity of our laws 3 ' and "the atrocity of our practl 
and to sympathize with infamous wretches imprisoned here 
for violating decrees promulgated both by God and man! 
Is this doing the work of "your Father which is in heaven,* 1 
or is it seeking only "that you may have glory of man?" 
Do you remember the denunciation of our Saviour, "Woe 
unto you, Scribes and Pharisees; hypocrites! for ye make 
clean the outside of the cup and platter, but within they are 
full of extortion and excess." 

But after all, supposing that every thing you say of Slavery 
be true, and its abolition a matter of the last necessity, how 
do you expect to effect emancipation, and what do you calcu- 
late will Ijq the result of its accomplishment ? As to the 
means to be used, the abolitionists, I believe, affect to differ, 
a large proportion of them pretending that their sole purpose 
is to apply " moral suasion" to the slaveholders themselves. 
As a matter of curiosity, I should like to know what their 
idea of this " moral suasion" is. Their discourses — yours is 
no exception — are all tirades, the exordium, argument and 
peroration, turning on the epithets "tyrants," "thieves," 
'* murderers," addressed to us. They revile us as "atrocious 
monsters," "violators of the laws of nature, God and man," 
our homes the abode of every iniquity, our land a "brothel." 
AVe retort, that they are " incendiaries" and " assassins." De- 



hammond's letters on slavery. 141 

lightful argument! Sweet, potent " moral suasion!" What 
slave has it freed — what proselyte can it ever make ? But if 
your course was wholly different — if you distilled nectar from 
your lips, and discoursed sweetest music, could you reasonably 
indulge the hope of accomplishing your object by such 
means? Nay, supposing that we were all convinced, and 
thought of Slavery precisely as you do, at what era of "moral 
suasion'' do you imagine you could prevail on us to give up a 
thousand millions of dollars in the value of our slaves, and a 
thousand millions of dollars more in the depreciation of our 
lands, in consequence of the want of laborers to cultivate 
them ? Consider : were ever any people, civilized or savage, 
persuaded by any argument, human or divine, to surrender 
voluntarily two thousand millions of dollars ? Would you 
think of asking five millions of Eno-lishmen to contribute, 
either at once or gradually, four hundred and fifty millions of 
pounds sterling to the cause of philanthropy, even if the pur- 
pose to be accomplished was not of doubtful goodness ? If 
you are prepared to undertake such a scheme, try it at home. 
Collect your fund — return us the money for our slaves, and 
do with them as you like. Be all the glory yours, fairly and 
honestly won. But you see the absurdity of such an idea. 
Away, then, with your pretended " moral suasion." You know 
it is mere nonsense. The abolitiouists have no faith in it 
themselves. Those who expect to accomplish any thing count 
on means altogether different. They aim, first, to alarm us : 
that failing, to compel us by force to emancipate our slaves, 
at our own risk and cost. To these purposes they obviously 
direct all their energies. Our Northern liberty men endea- 
vored to disseminate their destructive doctrine among our 
slaves, and excite them to insurrection. But we have put an 
end to that, and stricken terror into them. They dare not 
show their faces here. Then they declared they would dis- 



142 Hammond's letters on slavery. 

solve the Union. Let them do it. The North would repent 
it far more than the South. "We arc not alarmed at the idea. 
We are well content to give up the Union sooner than sacri- 
fice two thousand millions of dollars, and with them all the 
rights we prize. You may take it for granted that it is im- 
possible to persuade or alarm us into emancipation, or to 
making the first step towards it. Nothing, then, is left to try, 
but sheer force. If the abolitionists are prepared to expend 
their own treasure and shed their own blood as freely as they 
ask us to do ours, let them come. We do not court the con- 
flict; but we will not and we cannot shrink from it. If they 
are not ready to go so far ; if, as I expect, their philanthropy 
recoils from it; if they are looking only for clunp glory, let 
them turn their thoughts elsewhere, and leave us in peace. 
Be the sin, the danger and the evils of Slavery all our own. 
We eompel, we ask none to share them with us. 

I am well aware that a notable scheme lias been set on foot 
to achieve abolition by making what is by courtesy called 
" free" labor so much cheaper than slave labor as to force the 
abandonment of the latter. Though we are beginning to 
manufacture with slaves, I do not think you will attempt to 
pinch your operatives closer in Great Britain. You cannot 
curtail the rags with which they vainly attempt to cover their 
nakedness, nor reduce the porridge wh'ch barely, and not 
always, keeps those who have employment from perishing of 
famine. When you can do this, we will consider whether 
our slaves may not dispense with a pound or two of bacon 
per week, or a few garments annually. Your aim, however, 
is to cheapen labor in the tropics. The idea of doing this by 
exporting your u bold yeomanry" is, I presume, given up. 
Cromwell tried it when he sold the captured followers of 
Charles into West Indian Slavery, where they speedily found 
graves. JSor have your recent experiments on British and 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 143 

even Dutch constitutions succeeded better. Have you still 
faith in carrying thither your Coolies from Hindostan ? Doubt- 
less that once wild robber race, whose highest eulogium was 
that they did not murder merely for the love of blood, have 
been tamed down, and are perhaps " keen for immigration," 
for since your civilization has reached it, plunder has grown 
scarce in Guzerat. But what is the result of the experiment 
thus far ? Have the Coolies, ceasing to handle arms, learned 
to handle spades, and proved hardy and profitable laborers ? 
On the contrary, broken in spirit and stricken with disease at 
home, the wretched victims whom you have hitherto kid- 
napped for a bounty, confined in depots, put under hatches 
and carried across the ocean — forced into " voluntary immi- 
gration," have done little but lie down and die on the pseudo 
soil of freedom. At the end of five years two thirds, in some 
colonies a larger proportion, are no more ! Humane and 
pious contrivance ! To alleviate the fancied sufferings of the 
accursed posterity of Ham, you sacrifice by a cruel death 
two-thirds of the children of the blessed Shem — and demand 
the applause of Christians — the blessing of heaven ! If this 
" experiment" is to go on, in God's name try your hand upon 
the Thugs. That other species of "immigration" to which 
you are resorting I will consider presently. 

But what do you calculate will be the result of emancipa- 
tion, by whatever means accomplished ? You will probably 
point me, by way of answer, to the West Indies — doubtless 
to Antigua, the great boast of abolition. Admitting that it 
has succeeded there — which I will do for the sake of the 
argument — do you know the reason of it ? The true and '^J 
only causes of whatever success has attended it in Antigua are, 
that the population was before crowded, and all or nearly all 
the arable land in cultivation. The emancipated negroes 



144 iiammond's letters on slavery. 



could not, many of them, get awn)- if they desired ; and knew 
not where to go, in case they did. They had, practically, no 
alternative but to remain on the spot ; and remaining, they 
must work on the terms of the proprietors, or perish — the 
strong- arm of the mother country forbidding all hope of Priz- 
ing the land for themselves. The proprietors, well knowing 
that they could thus command labor for the merest R< 
ties of life, which was much cheaper than maintaining the 
non-effective as well as effective slaws in a style which decency 
and interest, if not humanity, required, willingly accepted half 
their value, and at once realized far more than the interest on 
the oth«r half in the diminution of their expenses, and the 
reduced comforts of the freemen. One of your most illus- 
trious judges, who was also a profound and philosophical his- 
torian, has said u that villeinage was not abolished, but went 
into decay in England." This was the process. This has 
been the process wherever (the name of) villeinage or slavery 
has been successfully abandoned. Slavery, in fart, "went 
into decay" in Antigua. 1 have admitted that, under similar 
circumstances, it mighi profitably cease here — that is, profita- 
bly to the individual proprietors. Give me half the value of 
my slaves, and compel them to remain and labor on my 
plantation, at ten to eleven cents a day, as they do in An- 
tigua, supporting themselves and families, and you shall have 
them to-morrow, and if you like dub them " free." Not to 
stickle, I would surrender them without price. No — I recall 
my words : My humanity revolts at the idea. lam attached 
to my slaves, and would not have act or part in reducing 
them to such a condition. I deny, however, that Antigua, as 
a community, is, or ever will be, as prosperous under present 
circumstances, as she was before abolition, though fully ripe 
for it. The fact is well known. The reason is that the Afri- 






Hammond's letters on slavery. 145 

can, if not a distinct, is an inferior race, and nevov v\\[ effect, 
as it never has effected, as much in any other condition as in 
that of Slavery. 

I know of no slaveholder who has visited the West Indies 
since Slavery was abolished, and published his views of it. 
All our facts and opinions come through the friends of the 
experiment, or at least those not opposed to it. Taking these, 
even without allowance, to be true as stated, I do not see 
where the abolitionists find cause for exultation. The tables 
of exports, which are the best evidences of the condition of a 
people, exhibit a woful falling off— excused, it is true, by un- 
precedented droughts and hurricanes, to which their free labor 
seems unaccountably more subject than slave labor used to be. 
I will not go into detail. It is well known that a large pro- 
portion of British legislation and expenditure, and that pro- 
portion still constantly increasing, is most anxiously devoted 
to repairing the monstrous error of emancipation. You are 
actually galvanizing your expiring colonies. The truth, de- 
duced from all the facts, was thus pithily stated by the Lon- 
don Quarterly Review, as long ago as 1840 : "None of the 
benefits anticipated by mistaken good intentions have been 
realized, while every evil wished for by knaves and foreseen 
by the wise has been painfully verified. The wild rashness of 
fanaticism has made the emancipation of the slaves equiva- 
lent to the loss of one-half of the West Indies, and yet put 
back the chance of negro civilization." (Art. Ld. Dudley's 
Letters.) Such are the real fruits of your never-to-be-too- 
much-glorified abolition, and the valuable dividend of your 
twenty millions of pounds sterling invested therein. 

If any farther proof was wanted of the utter and well- 
known, though not yet openly avowed, failure of West Indian 
emancipation, it would be furnished by the startling fact, that 
the African Slave Trade has been actually revived 
13 



146 Hammond's letters on slavery. 

under the auspices and protection of the britisii gov- 
ERNMENT. Under the specious guise of " immigration," they 
are replenishing those Islands with slaves from the coast of 
Africa. Your colony of Sierra Leone, founded on that coast 
to prevent the slave. trade, and peopled, by the bye, in the 
first instance, by negroes stolen from these States during the 
Revolutionary War, is the depot to which captives taken from 
slavers by your armed vessels are transported. I might say 
returned, since nearly half the Africans carried across the 
Atlantic are understood to be embarked in this vicinity. The 
wretched survivors, who are there set at liberty, are imme- 
diately seduced to " immigrate" to the West Indies. The 
business is systematically carried on by black " delegates," 
sent expressly from the West Indies, where, on arrival, the 
"immigrants" are sold into Slavcnj for twenty-one years, 
under conditions ridiculously trivial and wickedly void, since 
few or none will ever be able to derive any advantage from 
them. The whole prime of life thus passed in boudage, it is 
contemplated, and doubtless it will be carried into effect, to 
turn them out in their old age to shift for themselves, and to 
supply their places with fresh and vigorous "immigrants." 
Was ever a system of Slavery so barbarous devised before ? 
Can you think of comparing it with ours \ Even your own 
religious missionaries at Sierra Leone denounce it u as worse 
than the slave state in Africa." And your black delegates, fear- 
ful of the influence of these missionaries, as well as on account 
of the inadequate supply of captives, are now preparing to pro- 
cure the able-bodied and comparatively industrious Kroomen 
of the interior, by purchasing from their head-men the privi- 
lege of inveigling them to the West India market ! So ends 
the magnificent farce — perhaps I should say tragedy, of West 
India abolition ! I will not harrow your feelings by asking 
you to review the labors of your life and tell me what you 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 14 7 

and your brother enthusiasts have accomplished for ;i injured 
Africa," but while agreeing with Lord Stowell, that " villein- 
age decayed," and admitting that Slavery might do so also, I 
think I am fully justified by passed and passing events in 
saying, as Mr. Grosvenor said of the slave trade, that its 
abolition is " impossible." 

You are greatly mistaken, however, if yor ihink that the 
consequences of emancipation here would be similar and no 
more injurious than those which followed from it in your little 
sea-girt West India Islands, where nearly all were blacks. 
The system of Slavery is not in " decay" with us. It flour- 
ishes in full and growing vigor. Our country is boundless in 
extent. Dotted here and there with villages and fields, it is, 
for the most part, covered with immense forests and swamps 
of almost unknown size. In such a country, with a people so 
restless as ours, communicating of course some of that spirit 
to their domestics, can you conceive that any thing short of 
the power of the master over the slave, could confine the 
African race, notoriously idle and improvident, to labor on 
our plantations ? Break this bond, but for a day, and these . < 
plantations will be solitudes. The negro loves change, novelty 
and sensual excitements of all kinds, when awake. " Reason 
and order," of which Mr. Wilberforce said " liberty was the 
child," do not characterize him. Released from his present 
obligations, his first impulse would be to go somewhere. And 
here no natural boundaries would restrain him. At first they 
would all seek the towns, and rapidly accumulate in squalid 
groups upon their outskirts. Driven thence by the " armed 
police," which would immediately spring into existence, they 
would scatter in all directions. Some bodies of them might 
'wander towards the " free" States, or to the Western wilder- 
ness, marking their tracks by their depredations and their 
corpses. Many would roam wild in our " big woods." Many 



148 Hammond's letters on slavery. 

more would seek the recesses of our swamps for secure covert. 
Few, very few of them, could be prevailed on to do a stroke 
of work, none to labor continuously, while a head of cattle, 
sheep or swine could be found in our ranges, or an ear of corn 
nodded in our abandoned fields. These exhausted, our folds 
and poultry yards, barns and store- houses, would become their 
prey. Finally, our scattered dwellings would be plundered, 
perhaps fired, and the inmates murdered. How long do you 
suppose that we could bear these things? How long would 
it be before we should sleep with rifles at our bedsides, and 
never move without one in our hands ? This work once 
begun, let the story of our British ancestors and the aborigines 
of this country tell the sequel. Far more rapid, however, 
would be the catastrophe. " Ere many moons went by," the 
African race would be exterminated, or reduced again to 
Slavery, their ranks recruited, after your example, by fresh 
11 emigrants" from their fatherland. 

Is timely preparation and gradual emancipation suggested 
to avert these horrible consequences ? I thought your expe- 
rience in the West Indies had, at least, done so much as to 
explode that idea. If it failed there, much more would it 
fail here, where the two races, approximating to equality in 
numbers, are daily and hourly in the closest contact. Give 
room for but a single spark of real jealousy to be kindled 
between them, and the explosion would be instantaneous and 
universal. It is the most fatal of all fallacies, to suppose that 
, these two races can exist together, after any length of time, 
i or any process of preparation, on terms at all approaching to 
^equality. Of this, both of them are finally and fixedly con- 
vinced. They differ essentialjy, in all the leading traits which 
characterize the varieties of the human species, and color 
draws an indelible and insuperable line of separation between 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 149 

them. Every scheme founded upon the idea that they can 
remain together on the same soil, beyond the briefest period, 
in any other relation than precisely that which now subsists 
between them, is not only preposterous, but fraught with 
deepest danger. If there was no alternative but to try the 
"experiment" here, reason and humanity dictate that the 
sufferings of " gradualism " should be saved, and the catastro- 
phe of " immediate abolition" enacted as rapidly as possible. 
Are you impatient for the performance to commence ? Do 
you long to gloat over the scenes I have suggested, but could 
not hold the pen to portray ? In your long life many such 
have passed under your review. You know that they are not 
" impossible." Can they be to your taste ? Do you believe 
that in laboring to bring them about, the abolitionists are do- 
ing the will of God ? No ! God is not there. It is the work 
of Satan. The arch-fiend, under specious guises, has found 
his way into their souls, and with false appeals to philanthro- 
py, and foul insinuations to ambition, instigates them to rush 
headlong to the accomplishment of his diabolical designs. 

We live in a wonderful age. The events of the last three 
quarters of a century appear to have revolutionized the human 
mind. Enterprise and ambition are only limited in their pur- 
poses by the horizon of the imagination. It is the transcen- 
dental era. In philosophy, religion, government, science, arts, 
commerce, nothing that has been is to be allowed to be. 
Conservatism, in any form, is scoffed at. The slightest taint 
of it is fatal. Where will all this end ? If you can tolerate 
one ancient maxim, let it be that the best criterion of the fu- 
ture is the past. That, if anything, will give a clue. And, 
looking back only through your time, what was the earliest 
feat of this same transcendentalism ? The rays of the new 
moral Drummond Light were first concentrated to a focus at 
13* 



150 Hammond's letters ox slavery. 

Paris, to illuminate the universe. In a twinkling it consumed 
the political, religious and social systems of France. It could 
not be extinguished there until literally drowned in blood. 
And then, from its ashes arose that supernatural man, who, 
for twenty years, kept affrighted Europe in convulsions. Since 
that time, its scattered beams, refracted by broader surfaces, 
have, nevertheless, continued to scathe wherever they have 
fallen. What political structure, what religious creed, but has 
felt the galvanic shock, and even now trembles to its founda- 
tions ? Mankind, still horror-stricken by the catastrophe of 
France, have shrunk from rash experiments upon social sys- 
v-\u<. But they have been practising in the East, around the 
Mediterranean, and through the West India Islands. And 
growing confident, a portion of them seem desperately bent 
on kindling the all-devouring flame in the bosom of our land. 
Let it once again blaze up to heaven, and another cycle of 
blood and devastation will dawn upon the world. For our 
own sake, and for the sake of those infatuated men who are 
madly driving on the conflagration ; for the sake of human 
nature, we are called on to strain every nerve to arrest it. 
And be assured our efforts will be bounded only with our 
being. Nor do I doubt that five millions of people, brave, 
intelligent, united, and prepared to hazard every thing, will, 
in such a cause, with the blessing of God, sustain themselves. 
At all events, come what may, it is ours to meet it. 

We are well aware of the light estimation in which the 
abolitionists, and those who are taught by them, profess to 
hold us. We have seen the attempt of a portion of the Free 
Church of Scotland to reject our alms, on the ground that 
we are "slave-drivers," after sending missionaries to solicit 
them. And we have seen Mr. O'Connell, the "irresponsible 
master" of millions of ragged serfs, from whom, poverty 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 151 

stricken as they are, he contrives to wring a splendid privy- 
purse, throw back with contumely, the "tribute" of his own 
countrymen from this land of " miscreants." These people 
may exhaust their slang, and make black-guards of themselves, 
but they cannot defile us. And as for the suggestion to ex- 
clude slaveholders from your London clubs, we scout it. 
Many of us, indeed, do go to London, and we have seen your 
breed of gawky lords, both there and here, but it never en- 
tered into our conceptions to look on them as better than our- 
selves. The American slaveholders, collectively or individual- 
ly, ask no favors of any man or race who tread the earth. In 
none of the attributes of men, mental or physical, do they 
acknowledge or fear superiority elsewhere. They stand in the 
broadest light of the knowledge, civilization and improvement 
of the age, as much favored of heaven as any of the sons of 
Adam. Exacting nothing undue, they yield nothing but jus- 
tice and courtesy, even to royal blood. They cannot be flat- 
tered, duped, nor bullied out of their rights or their propriety. 
They smile with contempt at scurrility and vaporing beyond 
the seas, and they turn their backs upon it where it is "irre- 
sponsible ;" but insolence that ventures to look them in the 
face, will never fail to be chastised. 

I think I may trust you will not regard this letter as intru- 
sive. I should never have entertained an idea of writing it, 
had you not opened the correspondence. If you think any- 
thing in it harsh, review your own — which I regret that I lost 
soon after it was received — and you will probably find that 
you have taken your revenge before hand. If you have not, 
transfer an equitable share of what you deem severe, to the 
account of the abolitionists at large. They have accumulated 
against the slaveholders a balance of invective, which, with all 
our efforts, we shall not be able to liquidate much short of the 
era in which your national debt will be paid. At all events, 



15 2 hammond's letters on slavery. 

I have no desire to offend yon personally, and, with the best 
wishes for your continued health, I have the honor to be, 
Your obedient servant, 

J. H. HAMMOND. 
Thos. Clarkson, Esq. 



Silver Bluff, S. C, March 24, 1845. 

Sir — In my letter to you of the 28th January — which I 
trust you have received ere this — I mentioned that I had lost 
your circular letter soon after it had come to hand. It was, 
I am glad to say, only mislaid, and has within a few days 
been recovered. A second perusal of it induces me to resume 
my pen. Unwilling to trust my recollections from a single 
reading, I did not, in my last communication, attempt to fol- 
low the course of your argument, and meet directly the points 
made and the terms used. I thought it better to take a gen- 
eral view of the sulject, which could not fail to traverse your 
most material charges. I am well aware, however, that for 
fear of being tedious, I omitted many interesting topics alto- 
gether, and abstained from a complete discussion of some of 
those introduced. I do not propose now to exJumst the sub- 
ject ; which it would require volumes to do ; but without 
waiting to learn — which I may never do — your opinion of 
what I have already said, I sit down to supply some of the 
deficiencies of' my letter of January, and, with your circular 
before me, to reply to such parts of it as have not been fully 
answered. 

It is, I perceive, addressed, among others, to "such as have 
never visited the Southern States" of this confederacy, and 



hammond's letters on slavery. 153 

professes to enlighten their ignorance of the actual " condition 
of the poor slave in their own country." I cannot help think- 
ing you would have displayed prudence in confining the cir- 
culation of your letter altogether to such persons. You might 
then have indulged with impunity in giving, as you have 
done, a picture of Slavery, drawn from your own excited 
imagination, or from those impure fountains, the Martineaus, 
Marryatts, Trollopes and Dickenses, who have profited by 
catering, at our expense, to the jealous sensibilities and de- 
bauched tastes of your countrymen. Admitting that you are 
familiar with the history of Slavery, and the past discussions 
of it, as I did, I now think rather broadly, in my former let- 
ter, what can you know of the true condition of the " poor 
slave " here ? I am not aware that you have ever visited this 
country, or even the West Indies. Can you suppose^ that be- 
cause you have devoted your life to the investigation of the 
subject — cornmencing it under the influence of an enthusiasm, 
so^r nelancholy^ at fe*t, and so volcanic afterwards, as to be 
nothing short of hallucination — pursuing it as men of one idea 
do everything, with the single purpose of establishing your 
own view of it — gathering your information from discharged 
seamen, disappointed speculators, factious politicians, visionary 
reformers and scurrilous tourists — opening your ears to every 
species of complaint, exaggeration and falsehood, that inter- 
ested ingenuity could invent, and never for a moment ques- 
tioning the truth of anything that could make for your cause — 
can you suppose that all this has qualified you, living the 
while in England, to form or approximate towards the forma- 
tion of a correct opinion of the condition of slaves among us ? 
I know the power of self-delusion. I have not the least doubt, 
that you think yourself the very best informed man alive on 
this subject, and that many think so likewise. So far as facts 
go, even after deducting from your list a great deal that is not 



154 Hammond's letters on slavery. 

fact, I will not deny that, probably, your collection is the most 
extensive in existence. But as to the truth in regard to 
Slavery, there is not an adult in this region but knows more 
of it than you do. Truth and fact tare, you are aware, by no 
means synonymous terms. Ninety-nine facts may constitute 
a falsehood: the hundredth, added or alone, gives the truth. 
With all your knowledge of facts, I undertake to say that 
you are entirely and grossly ignorant of the real condition of 
our slaves. And from all that I can see, you are equally ig- 
norant of the essential principles of human association revealed 
in history, both sacred and profane, on which Slavery rests, 
and which will perpetuate it forever in some form or other. 
However you may declaim against it; however powerfully 
you may array atrocious incidents; whatever appeals you may 
make to the heated imaginations and tender sensibilities of 
mankind, believe me, your total blindness to the whole truth, 
which alone constitutes the truth, incapacitates you from ever 
making an impression on the sober reason and sound com- 
mon sense of the world. You may seduce thousands — you 
can convince no one. Whenever and wherever you or the 
advocates of your cause can arouse the passions of the weak- 
minded and the ignorant, and bringing to bear with them the 
interests of the vicious and unprincipled, overwhelm common 
sense and reason — as God sometimes permits to be done — you 
may triumph. Such a triumph we have witnessed in Great 
Britain. But I trust it is far distant here ; nor can it, from its 
nature, be extensive or enduring. Other classes of reformers, 
animated by the same spirit as the abolitionists, attack the 
institution of marriage, and even the established relations of 
parent and child. And they collect instances of barbarous 
cruelty and shocking degradation, which rival, if they do not 
throw into the shade, your Slavery statistics. But the rights 
of marriage and parental authority rests upon truths as ob- 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 155 

vious as they are unchangeable — coming home to every hu- 
man being, — self-impressed forever on the individual mind, 
and cannot be shaken until the whole man is corrupted, nor sub- 
verted until civilized society becomes a putrid mass. Domestic 
Slavery is not so universally understood, nor can it make such 
a direct appeal to individuals or society beyond its pale. 
Here, prejudice and passion have room to sport at the expense 
of others. They may be excited and urged to dangerous ac- 
tion, remote from the victims they mark out. They may, as 
they have done, effect great mischief, but they cannot be made 
to maintain, in the long run, dominion over reason and 
common sense, nor ultimately put down what God has or- 
dained. 

You deny, however, that Slavery is sanctioned by God, and 
your chief argument is, that when he gave to Adam dominion 
over the fruits of the earth and the animal creation, he stopped 
there. " He never gave him any further right over his fellow- 
men."' You restrict the descendants of Adam to a very short 
list of rights and powers, duties and responsibilities, if you 
limit them solely to those conferred and enjoined in the first 
chapter of Genesis. It is very obvious that in this narrative 
of the Creation, Moses did not have it in view to record any 
part of the law intended for the government of man in his 
social or political state. Eve was not yet created ; the expul- 
sion had not yet taken place ; Cain was unborn ; and no allu- 
sion whatever is made to the manifold decrees of God to 
•which these events gave rise. The only serious answer this 
argument deserves, is to say, what is so manifestly true, that 
God's not expressly giving to Adam " any right over his fel- 
low-men " by no means excluded him from conferring that 
right on his descendants ; which he in fact did. We know- 
that Abraham, the chosen one of God, exercised it and held 
property in his fellow-man, even anterior to the period when 



156 



property in land was acknowledged. We might infer that 
God had authorized it. But we are not reduced to inference 
or conjecture. At the hazard of fatiguing you by repetition, 
I will again refer you to the ordinances of the Scriptures. In- 
numerable instances might be quoted where God has given 
and commanded men to assume dominion over their fellow- 
men. But one will suffice. In the twenty fifth chapter of 
Leviticus, you will find domestic Slavery — precisely such as 
is maintained at (his day in these States — ordained and estab- 
lished by God, in language which I defy you to pervert so 
as to leave a doubt on any honest mind that this institution 
was founded by him, and decreed to be perpetual '. I quote 
the words : 

Leviticus xxv. 44-40 : " Both thy bondmen and thy bond- 
maids which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen [Afri- 
cans] that are round about you : of them ye shall buy bond- 
men and bondmaids. 

" Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn 
among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that 
are with you which they begat in your land [descendants of 
Africans ?] and they shall be your possession. 

''''And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your chil- 
dren after you, to inherit them for a possession. They shall 

BE TOUR BONDMEN FOREVER." 

What human legislature could make a decree more full 
and explicit than this ? What court of law or chancery could 
defeat a title to a slave couched in terms so clear and com- 
plete as these ? And this is the law of God, whom you pre- 
tend to worship, while you denounce and traduce us for re- 
specting it. 

It seems scarcely credible, but the fact is so, that you deny 
this law so plainly written, and in the face of it have the 
hardihood to declare that " though Slavery is not specifically, 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 157 

yet it is virtually, forbidden in the Scriptures, because all thei 
crimes which necessarily arise out of Slavery, and which can 
arise from no other source, are reprobated there and threat- 
ened with divine vengeance." Such an unworthy subterfuge 
is scarcely entitled to consideration. But its gross absurdity 
may be exposed in few words. I do not know what crimes 
you particularly allude to as arising from Slavery. But you 
will perhaps admit— not because they are denounced in the 
decalogue, which the abolitionists respect only so far as they 
choose, but because it is the immediate interest of most men 
to admit— that disobedience to parents, adultery, and steal- 
ing, are crimes. Yet these crimes " necessarily arise from " 
the relations of parent and child, marriage, and the possession 
of private property; at least they " can arise from no other 
sources." ' Then, according to your argument, it is " virtually 
forbidden" to marry, to beget children, and to hold private 
property ! Nay, it is forbidden to live, since murder can only 
be perpetrated on living subjects. You add that « in the same 
way the gladiatorial shows of old, and other barbarous cus- 
toms, were not specifically forbidden in the New Testament, 
and yet Christianity was the sole means of their suppression." 
This is very true. But these shows and barbarous customs 
thus suppressed were not authorized by God. They were not 
ordained and commanded by God for the benefit of his chosen 
people and mankind, as the purchase and holding of bond- 
men and bondmaids were. Had they been they would never 
have been " suppressed by Christianity " any more than Sla- 
very can be by your party. Although Christ came " not to 
destroy but fulfil the law," he nevertheless did formally abro- 
gate some of the ordinances promulgated by Moses, and all 
such as were at war with his mission of " peace and good will 
on earth." He "specifically" annuls, for instance, one "bar- 
barous custom " sanctioned by those ordinances, where he 
14 



158 hammond's letters on slavery. 

says, " ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an 
eye, and a tooth for a tooth ; but I say unto you that ye resist 
not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, 
turn to him the other also." Now, in the time of Christ, it 
was usual for masters to put their slaves to death on the 
slightest provocation. They even killed and cut them up to 
feed their fishes. He was undoubtedly aware of these things, 
as well as of the law and commandment I have quoted. He 
could only have been restrained from denouncing them, as he 
did the "lex la lionis" because he knew that in despite of 
these barbarities the institution of Slavery was at the bottom 
a sound and wholesome, as well as lawful one. Certain it is, 
\i that in his wisdom and purity lie did not see proper to inter- 
fere with it. In your wisdom, however, you make the sacri- 
legious attempt to overthrow it. 

You quote the denunciation of Tyre and Sidon, and say 
that "the chief reason given by the prophet Joel for their de- 
struction, was, that tiny were notorious beyond all others for 
carrying on the slave trade." I am afraid you think we have 
no Bibles in the Slave States, or that we are unable to 
read them. I cannot otherwise account for your making this 
reference, unless indeed your own reading is confined to an 
expurgated edition, prepared for the use of abolitionists, in 
which everything relating to Slavery that militates against 
their view of it is left out. The prophet Joel denounces the 
Tyrians and Sidonians, because " the children also of Judah 
and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians." 
And what is the divine vengeance for this " notorious slave 
trading V Hear it. " And I will sell your sons and daugh- 
ters iuto the hands of the children of Judah, and they shall 
sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off; for the Lord 
hath spoken it." Do you call this a condemnation of slave 
trading ? The prophet makes God himself a participator in 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 159 

the crime, if that be one. "The Lord hath spoken it," he 
says, that the Tyrians and Sidonians shall be sold into slavery 
to strangers. Their real offence was, in enslaving the chosen 
people ; and their sentence was a repetition of the old com- 
mand, to makes slaves of the heathen round abont. 

I have dwelt upon your scriptural argument, because you 
profess to believe the Bible ; because a large proportion of the 
abolitionists profess to do the same, and to act under its sanc- 
tion ; because your circular is addressed in part to "professing 
Christians ;" and because it is from that class mainly that you 
expect to seduce converts to your anti-christian, I may say, 
infidel doctrines. It would be wholly unnecessary to answer 
you, to any one who reads the Scriptures for himself, and con- 
strues them according to any other formula than that which 
the abolitionists are wickedly endeavoring to impose upon the 
world. The scriptural sanction of Slavery is in fact so palpa- 
ble, and so strong, that both wings of your party are begin- 
ning to acknowledge it. The more sensible and moderate 
admit, as the organ of the Free Church of Scotland, the North. 
British Review, has lately done, that they " are precluded by 
the statements and conduct of the Apostles from regarding 
mere slaveholding as essentially sinful" while the desperate 
and reckless, who are bent on keeping up the agitation at 
every hazard, declare, as has been done in the Anti-Slavery 
Record, "If our inquiry turns out in favor of Slavery, it is 
the Bible that must fall, and not the rights of human* 
nature." You cannot, I am satisfied, much longer maintain 
before the world the Christian platform from which to wage 
war upon our institutions. Driven from it, you must aban- 
don the contest, or, repudiating revelation, rush into the 
horrors of natural religion. 

You next complain that our slaves are kept in bondage by 
the " law of force." In what country or condition of mankind 



160 

do you see human affairs regulated merely by the law of 
love ? Unless I am greatly mistaken, you will, if you look 
over the world, find nearly all certain and permanent rights, 
civil, social, and I may even add religions, resting on and ulti- 
mately secured by the " law of force." The power of majori- 
ties — of aristocracies — of kings — nay of priests, for the most 
part, and of property, resolves itself at last into " force," and 
could not otherwise be long maintained. Thus, in every turn 
of your argument against our Bystem of Slavery, you advance, 
whether conscious of it or not, radical and revolutionary doc- 
trines calculated to change the whole face of the world, to 
overthrow all government, disorganize society, and reduce 
man to a state of nature — red with blood, and shrouded once 
more in barbaric ignorance. But you greatly err, if you sup- 
pose, because we rely on force in the last resort to maintain 
our supremacy over our slaves, that ours is a stern and un- 
feeling domination, at all to be compared in hard-hearted 
severity to that exercised, not over the mere laborer only, but 
by the higher over each lower order, wherever the British 
sway is acknowledged. You say, that if those you address 
were "to spend one day in the South, they would return 
home with impressions against Slavery never to be erased." 
But the fact -is universally the reverse, I have known nume- 
rous instances, and I never knew a single one, where there 
was no other cause of offence, and no object to promote by 
falsehood, that individuals from the non-slaveholding States 
did not, after residing among us long enough to understand 
the subject, " return home " to defend our Slavery. It is matter 
of regret that you have never tried the experiment yourself. 
I do not doubt you would have been converted, for I give you 
credit for an honest though perverted mind. You would 
have seen how weak and futile is all abstract reasoning about 
this matter, and that, as a building may not be less elpgant 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 161 

in its proportions, or tasteful in its ornaments, or virtuous in 
its uses, for being based upon granite, so a system of human 
government, though founded on force, may develope and cul- 
tivate the tenderest and purest sentiments of the human 
heart. And our patriarchal scheme of domestic servitude is 
indeed well calculated to awaken the higher and finer feelings 
of our nature. It is not wanting in its enthusiasm and its 
poetry. The relations of the most beloved and honored chief, 
and the most faithful and admiring subjects, which, from the 
time of Homer, have been the theme of song, are frigid and 
unfelt compared with those existing between the master and 
his slaves — who served his father, and rocked his cradle, or 
have been born in his household, and look forward to serve 
his children — who have been through life the props of his 
fortune, and the objects of his care — who have partaken of 
his griefs, and looked to him for comfort in their own — whose 
sickness he has so frequently watched over and relieved — 
whose holidays he has so often made joyous by his bounties 
and his presence ; for whose welfare, when absent, his anxious 
solicitude never ceases, and whose hearty and affectionate 
greetings never fail to welcome him home. In this cold, cal- 
culating, ambitious world of ours, there are few ties more 
heartfelt, or of more benignant influence, than those which 
mutually bind the master and the slave, under our ancient 
system, handed down from the father of Israel. The unholy 
purpose of the abolitionists, is to destroy by defiling it ; to 
infuse into it the gall and bitterness which rankle in their ow r n 
envenomed bosoms ; to poison the minds of the master and 
the servant; turn love to hatred, array "force" against force, 
and hurl all 

" With hideous ruin and combustion, down 
To bottomless perdition." 

You think it a great " crime " that we do not pay our slaves 
14* 



162 HAMMONDS LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

" wage?,"' and on this account pronounce us " robbers." In 
my former letter, I showed that the labor of our slaves was 
not without great cost to us, and that in fact they themselves 
receive more in return for it than your hirelings do for theirs. 
For what purpose do men labor, but to support themselves 
and their families in what comfort they are able ? The efforts 
of mere physical labor seldom suffice to provide more than a 
livelihood. And it is a well known and shocking fact, that 
while few operatives in Great Britain succeed in securing a 
comfortable living, the greater part drag out a miserable ex- 
istence, and sink at last under absolute want. Of what avail 
is it that you go through the form of paying them a pittance 
of what you call "wages," when you do not, in return for 
their services, allow them what alone they ask — and have a 
just right to demand — enough to feed, clothe and lodge tin m, 
in health and Bickness, with reasonable comfort. Though we 
do not give " wage- < v, we do this for our stares, and 

they are therefore better rewarded than yours. It is the pre- 
vailing vice and error of the- aire, and one from which the 
abolitionist, with all their saintly pretensions, are far from 
being free, to bring everything to the standard of money. 
You make gold and silver the great test of happiness. The 
American slave must be wretched indeed, because he is not 
compensated for his services in cash. It is altogether praise- 
worthy to pay the laborer a shilling a day, and let him starve 
on it. To supply all his wants abundantly, and at all times, 
yet withhold from him money, is among " the most reprobated 
crimes/' The fact cannot be denied, that the mere laborer is 
now, and always has been, everywhere that barbarism has 
ceased, enslaved. Among the innovations of modern times, 
following " the decay of villeinage," has been the creation of 
a new system of Slavery. The primitive and patriarchal, 
which may also be called the sacred and natural system, in 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 163 

which the laborer is under the personal control of a fellow- 
being endowed with the sentiments and sympathies of hu- 
manity, exists among us. It has been almost everywhere else 
superseded by the modern artificial money power system, in 
"which man — his thews and sinews, his hopes and affections, his 
very being, are all subjected to the dominion of capital — a 
monster without a heart — cold, stern, arithmetical — sticking 
to the bond — taking ever " the pound of flesh," — working up 
human life with engines, and retailing it out by weight and 
measure. His name of old was " Mammon, the least erected 
spirit that fell from heaven." And it is to extend his empire 
that you and your deluded coadjutors dedicate your lives. 
You are stirring up mankind to overthrow our heaven-ordain- 
ed system of servitude, surrounded by innumerable checks, 
designed and planted deep in the human heart by God aud 
nature, to substitute the absolute rule of this " spirit repro- 
bate," whose proper place was hell. 

You charge us with looking on cur slaves " as chattels or 
brutes," and enter into a somewhat elaborate argument to 
prove that they have "human forms," "talk," and even 
" think." Now the fact is, that however you may indulge in 
this strain for effect, it is the abolitionists, and not the slave- 
holders, who, practically, and in the most important point of 
view, regard our slaves as " chattels or brutes." In your cal- 
culations of the consequences of emancipation, you pass over 
entirely those which must prove most serious, and which arise 
from the fact of their being persons. You appear to think 
that we might abstain from the use of them as readily as if 
they were machines to be laid aside, or cattle that might be 
turned out to find pasturage for themselves. I have hereto- 
fore glanced at some of the results that would follow from 
breaking the bonds of so many human beings, now peacefully 
and happily linked into our social system. The tragic hor- 



J 



164 hammond's letters on slavery. 

rors, the decay and ruin that would for year?, perhaps for 
ages, brood over our land, if it could be accomplished, 1 will 
not attempt to portray. But do you fancy the blight would, 
in such an event, come to us alone ? The diminution of the 
sugar crop of the West Indies affected Great Britain only, and 
there chiefly the poor. It was a matter of no moment to 
capital, that labor should have one comfort less. Yet it has 
forced a reduction of the British duty on sugar. Who can 
estimate the consequences that must follow' the annihilation 
of the cotton crop of the slaveholding States ? I do not un- 
dervalue the importance of other articles of commerce, but no 
calamity could befall the world at all comparable to the sud- 
den loss of two millions of bales of cotton annually. From 
the deserts of Africa to the Siberian wilds — from Greenland to 
the Chinese wall, — there is not a spot of earth but would feel 
the sensation. The factories of Europe would fall with a con- 
cussion that would shake down castles, palaces, and even 
thrones; while the "purse-proud, elbowing insolence" of our 
Northern monopolist would soon disappear forever under the 
smooth speech of the pedlar, scourging our frontiers for a live- 
lihood, or the bluff vulgarity of the South Sea whaler, follow- 
ing the harpoon amid storms and shoals. Doubtless the abo- 
litionists think we could grow cotton without slaves, or that 
at worst the reduction of the crop would be moderate and 
temporary. Such gross delusions show how profoundly igno- 
rant they are of our condition here. 

You declare that " the character of the people of the South 
has long been that of hardened infidels, who fear not God, 
and have no regard for religion." I will not repeat what I 
said in my former letter on this point. I only notice it to ask 
you how you could possibly reconcile it to your profession of 
a Christian spirit, to make such a malicious charge — to defile 
your soul with such a calumny against an unoffending people ? 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 165 

* ' You are old ; 
Nature in you stands on the very verge 
Of her confine. You should be ruled and led 
By some discretion." 

May God forgive you. 

Akin to this, is the wanton and furious assault made on us 
by Mr. Macaulay, in his late speech on the sugar duties, in 
the House of Commons, which has just reached me. His 
denunciations are wholly without measure, and, among other 
things, he asserts " that Slavery in the United States wears 
its worst form ; that, boasting of our civilization and freedom, 
and frequenting Christian churches, we breed up slaves, nay, 
beget children for slaves, and sell them at so much a-head." 
Mr. Macaulay is a reviewer, and he knows that he is " no- 
thing if not critical." The practice of his trade has given him 
the command of all the slashing and vituperative phrases of 
our language, and the turn of his mind leads him to the ha- 
bitual use of them. He is an author, and as no copy-right 
law secures for him from this country a consideration for his 
writings, he is not only independent of us, but naturally hates 
everything American. He is the representative of Edinburgh ; 
it is his cue to decry our Slavery, and in doing so he may 
safely indulge the malignity of his temper, his indignation 
against us, and his capacity for railing. He has suffered once, 
for being in advance of his time in favor of abolition, and he 
does not intend that it shall be forgotten, or his claim passed 
over, to any crumb which may now be thrown to the vocife- 
rators in the cause. If he does not know that the statements 
he has made respecting the slaveholders of this country are 
vile and atrocious falsehoods, it is because he does not think it 
worth his while to be sure he speaks the truth, so that he 
speaks to his own purpose. 

" Hie niger est, hunc tu, Rornane caveto." 



166 hammond's letters on slavery. 

Such exhibitions as ho has made, may draw the applause 
of a British House of Commons, but. among the sound and 
high-minded thinkers of the world they can only excite con- 
tempt and disgust. 

But you are not content with depriving us of all religious 
feelings. You assert that our Slavery lias also "demoralized 
the Northern States," and charge upon it not only every 
common violation of good order there, but the "Mormon 
murders," the u Philadelphia riots,' 1 and all " the extermina- 
ting wars against the Indians." I wonder that you did not 
increase the list by adding that it had caused the recent in- 
undation of the Mississippi, and the hurricane in the West 
Indies — perhaps the insurrection of Rebecca, and the war in 
Scinde. You refer to the law prohibiting the transmission of 
abolition publications through the mail, as proof of general 
corruption ! You could not do so, however, without noticing 
the late detected espionage over the British post office by a 
minister of state. It is true, as yon say, it "occasioned a 
general outburst of national feeling" — from the opposition; 
and a "Parliamentary enquiry was instituted" — that is, 
moved, but treated quite cavalierly. At all events, though 
the fact was admitted, Sir James Graham yet retains the 
Home Department, For one, I do not undertake to condemn 
him. Such thino-s are not against the laws and usages of 
your country. I do not know fully what reasons of state may 
have influenced him and justified his conduct. But I do 
know that there is a vast difference in point of "national 
morality" between the discretionary power residing in your 
government to open any letter in the public post office, and a 
well-defined and limited law to prevent the circulation of cer- 
tain specified incendiary writings by means of the United 
States mail. 

Having now referred to everything like argument on the 



167 



subject of Slavery, that is worthy of notice in your letter, per- 
mit me to remark on its tone and style, and very extraordi- 
nary bearing upon other institutions of this country. You 
commence by addressing certain classes of our people, as be- 
longing to " a nation whose character is now so low in the 
estimation of the civilized world ;" and throughout you main- 
tain this tone. Did the Americans who were " under your 
roof last summer " inform you that such language would be 
gratifying to their fellow-citizens "having no practical con- 
cern with slaveliolding ?" Or do the infamous libels on Ame- 
rica, which you read in our abolition papers, induce you to 
believe that all that class of people are, like the abolitionists 
themselves, totally destitute of patriotism or pride of country ? 
Let me tell you that you are grossly deceived. And although 
your stock-brokers and other speculators, who have been bit- 
ten in American ventures, may have raised a stunning "cry" 
against us in England, there is a vast body of people here 
besides slaveholders, who justly 

" Deem their own land of every land the pride, 
Beloved by heaven o'er all the world beside," 
and who know that at this moment we rank among the first 
powers of the world— a position which we not only claim, but 
are always ready and able to maintain. 

The style you assume in addressing your Northern friends, 
is in perfect keeping with your apparent estimation of them. 
Though I should be the last, perhaps, to criticise mere style, 
I could not but be struck with the extremely simple manner 
of your letter. You seem to have thought you were writing 
a tract for benighted heathen, and telling wonders never be- 
fore suggested to their imagination, and so far above their 
untutored comprehension as to require to be related in the 
primitive language of " the child's own book." This is suffi- 
ciently amusing ; and would be more so, but for the coarse 



168 Hammond's letters on slavery. 

and bitter epithets you continually apply to the poor slave- 
holders — epithets whicii appear to be stereotyped for the use 
of abolitionists, and which form a large and material part of 
all their arguments. 

But, perhaps, the most extraordinary part of your letter is 
your bold denunciation of" the shameful compromises" of our 
constitution, and your earnest recommendation to those you 
address to overthrow or revolutionize it. In so many words 
you say to them, " you must either separate yourselves from 
all political connection with the South, and make your own 
laws ; or if you do not choose such a separation, you must 
break up the political ascendancy which the Southern have 
had for so long a time over the Northern States." The ital- 
ics in this, as in all other quotations, are your own. It is well 
for those who circulate your letter here, that the constitution 
you denounce requires an overt act to constitute treason. It 
may be tolerated for an American by birth, to use on his own 
soil the freedom of speaking and writing which is guaranteed 
him, and abuse our constitution, our Union, and our people. 
But that a foreigner should use such seditious language, in a 
circular letter addressed to a portion of the American people, 
is a presumption well calculated to excite the indignation of 
all. The party known in this country as the abolition party 
has long since avowed the sentiments you express, and adopt- 
ed the policy you enjoin. At the recent presidential election, 
they gave over 62,000 votes for their own candidate, and 
held the balance of power in two of the largest States — want- 
ing but little of doing it in several others. In the last four 
years their vote has quadrupled. Should the infatuation con- 
tinue, and their vote increase in the same ratio for the next 
four years, it will be as large as the vote of the actual slave- 
holders of the Union. Such a prospect is, doubtless, ex- 
tremely gratifying to you. It gives hope of a contest on 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 169 

such terms as may insure the downfall of Slavery or our con- 
stitution. The South venerates the constitution, and is pre- 
pared to stand by it forever, such as it came from the hands 
of our fathers ; to risk every thing to defend and maintain 
it in its integrity. But the South is under no such delusion 
as to believe that it derives any peculiar protection from the 
Union. On the contrary, it is well known we incur peculiar 
danger, and that we bear far more than our proportion of the 
burdens. The apprehension is also fast fading away that any 
of the dreadful consequences commonly predicted will neces- 
sarily result from a separation of the States. And comeivhat 
may, we are firmly resolved that our system of Domestic 
Slavery shall stand. The fate of the Union, then — but, 
thank God, not of republican government — rests mainly in 
the hands of the people to whom your letter is addressed — 
the " professing Christians of the Northern States having no 
concern with slaveholding," and whom with incendiary zeal 
you are endeavo'-ing to stir up to strife — without which fana- 
ticism can neither live, move, nor have any being. 

We have often been taunted for our sensitiveness in regard 
to the discussion of Slavery. Do not suppose it is because 
we have any doubts of our rights, or scruples about asserting 
them. There was a time when such doubts and scruples 
were entertained. Our ancestors opposed the introduction of 
slaves into this country, and a feeling adverse to it was handed 
clown from them. The enthusiastic love of liberty fostered 
by our revolution strengthened this feeling. And before the 
commencement of the abolition agitation here, it was the 
common sentiment that it was desirable to get rid of Slavery. 

; Many thought it our duty to do so. When that agitation 
arose, we were driven to a close examination of the subject in 

1 all its bearings, and the result has been an universal convic- 
tion that in holding slaves we violate no law of God, — inflict 
15 



170 hammoxd's letters on slavery. 

no injustice on any of his creatures — while the terrible con- 
sequences of emancipation to all parties and the world at 
clearly revealed to us, make us shudder at the bare 
thought of it. The slaveholders are, therefore, indebted to 
the abolitionists for perfect rase of conscience, and the satis- 
faction of a settled and unanimous determination in reference 
to this matter. And could their agitation cease now, I 
believe, after all, the good would preponderate over the evil 
of it in this country. On the contrary, however, it is urged 
on with frantic violence, and the abolitionists, reasoning in the 
abstract, as if it were a mere moral or metaphysical specula- 
tion, or a minor question in polities, profess to be surprised at 
our exasperation. In their ignorance and recklessness, they 
seem to be unable to comprehend our feelings or position. 
The subversion of our light-, tin- destruction of our property^ 
the disturbance of our peace ami the peace of the world, are 
matters which do not appear to arrest their consideration. 
When revolutionary France proclaimed "hatred to king- and 
unity to the republic," and inscribed on her banners " Franca 
ris< n against tyrants," she professed to be only worshipping 
" abstract rights." And if there can be Buch things, perhaps 
she was. Yet all Europe rose to put her sublime theories 
down. They declared her an enemy to the common peace ; 
that her doctrines alone violated the "law of neighborhood," 
and, as Mr. Burke said, justly entitled them to anticipate the 
"damnum nonduui factum" of the civil law. Danton, Bar- 
rere, and the rest were apparently astonished that umbrage 
should be taken. The parallel between them and the aboli- 
tionists holds good in all respects. 

The rise and progress of this fanaticism is one of the phe- 
nomena of the age in which we live. I do not intend to 
repeat what I have already said, or to trace its career more 
minutely at present. But the legislation of Great Britain 



171 

Will make it historical, and doubtless you must feel some cu- 
riosity to know how it will figure on the page of' the annalist. 
I think I can tell you. Though I have accorded and do ac- 
cord to you and your party, great influence in bringing about 
the parliamentary action of your country, you must not expect 
to go down to posterity as the only cause of it. Though you 
trace the progenitors of abolition from 1516, through a long 
stream with clivers branches, down to the period of its triumph 
in your country, it has not escaped contemporaries, and will 
not escape posterity, that England, without much effort, sus- 
tained the storm of its scoffs and threats, until the moment 
arrived when she thought her colonies fully supplied with 
Africans; and declared against the slave trade, only when she 
deemed it unnecessary to her, and when her colonies, full of 
slaves, would have great advantages over others not so well 
provided. Nor did she agree to West India emancipation, 
until, discovering the error of her previous calculation, it be- 
came an object to have slaves free throughout the Western 
world, and, on the ruins of the sugar and cotton growers of 
America and the Islands, to build up her great slave empire 
in the East; while her indefatigable exertions, still continued, 
to engraft the right of search upon the law of nations, on the 
plea of putting an end to the forever increasing slave trade, 
are well understood to have chiefly in view the complete es- 
tablishment of her supremacy at sea.* Nor must you flatter 
yourself that your party will derive historic dignity from the 

* On these points, let me recommend you to consult a very able 
Essay on the Slave Trade and Right of Search, by M. Jollivet, re- 
cently published; and as you say, since writing your Circular Letter, 
that you " burn to try your hand on another little Essay, if a subject 
could be found," I propose to you to " try " to answer this question, 
put by M. Jollivet to England : '• Pourquoi sa philanthrope ria pas 
daigne, jusqu' a present, doublet le cap de Bonne- Esperance ?" 



172 Hammond's letters on slavery. 

names of the illustrious British statesmen who have acted 
with it. Their country's ends were theirs. They have stoop- 
ed to use you, as the must illustrious men will sometimes use 
the vilest instruments, to accomplish their own purposes. A 
few philanthropic common places and rhetorical flourishes, 
"in the abstract," have secured them your "sweet voices," 
and your influence over the tribe of mawkish sentimentalists. 
Wilberforce may have been yours, but what was he besides, 
but a wealthy county member? You must, therefore, expect 
to stand on your own merits alone before posterity, or rather 
that portion of it that may be curious to trace the history of 
the delusions which, from time to time, pass over the surface of 
human affairs, and who may trouble themselves to look 
through the ramifications of transcendentalism, in this era of 
extravagances. And how do you expect to appear in their 
As Christians, piously endeavoring to enforce the will 
of God, and carry out the principles of Christianity 1 Cer- 
tainly not, since you deny or pervert the Scriptures in the 
doctrines you advance ; and in your conduct, furnish a glaring 
contrast to the examples of Christ and the Apostles. As 
philanthropists, devoting yourselves to the cause of humanity, 
relieving the needy, comforting the afflicted, creating peace 
and gladness and plenty round about you ? Certainly not, since 
you turn from the needy, the afflicted ; from strife, sorrow 
and starvation which surround you ; close your eyes and hands 
upon them ; shut out from your thoughts and feelings the 
human misery which is real, tangible, and within your reach, 
to indulge your morbid imagination in conjuring up woes and 
Wants among a strange people in distant lands, and offering 
them succor in the shape of costless denunciations of their 
best friends, or by scattering among them " firebrands, arrows 
and death." Such folly and madness, such wild mock- 
ery and base imposture, can never win for you, in the sober 



Hammond's letters on slavery. 173 

judgment of future times, the name of philanthropists. Will 
you even be regarded as worthy citizens ? Scarcely, when 
the purposes you have in view, can only be achieved by revo- 
lutionizing governments and overturning social systems, and 
when you do not hesitate, zealously and earnestly, to recom- 
mend such measures. Be assured, then, that posterity will 
not regard the abolitionists as Christians, philanthopists, or 
virtuous citizens. It will, I have no doubt, look upon the 
mass of the party as silly enthusiasts, led away by designing 
characters, as is the case with all parties that break from the 
great, acknowledged ties which bind civilized man in fellow- 
ship. The leaders themselves will be regarded as mere am- 
bitious men ; not taking rank with those whose ambition is 
"eagle-winged and sky-aspiring," but belonging to that mean 
and selfish class, who are instigated by "rival-hating envy," 
and whose base thirst is for notoriety ; who cloak their designs 
under vile and impious hypocrisies, and, unable to shine in 
higher spheres, devote themselves to fanaticism, as a trade. 
And it will be perceived that, even in that, they shunned the 
highest walk. Religious fanaticism was an old established 
vocation, in which something brilliant was required to attract 
attention. They could not be George Foxes, nor Joanna 
Southcotes, nor even Joe Smiths. But the dullest pretender 
could discourse a jumble of pious bigotry, natural rights, and 
drivelling philanthropy. And, addressing himself to aged 
folly and youthful vanity, to ancient women, to ill-gotten 
wealth, to the reckless of all classes, who love excitement and 
change, offer each the cheapest and the safest glory in the 
market. Hence, their numbers; and, from number and 
clamor, what impression they have made on the world. 

Such, I am persuaded, is the light in which the abolitionists 
will be viewed by the posterity their history may reach. Un- 
less, indeed— which God forbid— circumstances should so favor 



174 hammond's letters on slavery. 

as to enable them to produce a convulsion which may elevate 
them higher on the "bad eminence " where they have placed 
themselves. 

I have the honor to be 

Your obedient servant, 

J. II. HAMMOND. 
Thomas Clarkson, Esq. 



Note.— The foregoing Letters were not originally intended for pub- 
lication. In preparing them for the press, they have Wen revised. 
The alteration- and corrections made, however.have been mostly ver- 
bal. Had the writer fell at liberty to condense the two letters into 
one, and bring up the history of abolit on to the period of publica- 
tion, be might bare presented a more concise and perfect argument, and 
illustrated his views more forcibly, by reference to facts recently de- 
veloped. For example, since writing the first, the letter of Mr. Clark- 
son, as President of the British Anti-Slavery Society, to Sir Robert 

Feel, denouncing the whole scheme of " Immigration," has reached 
him; ami after he had forwarded the last, he saw it stated, that Mr. 
Clarkson had, as late as the first part of April, addressed the Karl of 
Aberdeen, and declared, that all efforts to suppress the African slave 
trade bad fully failed. It may be confidently expected, thai it will 
be ere long announced from the same quarter, that the "experiment" 

of Wot India emancipation has^ao prove! a complete abortion. 

Should the terms which have been applied to the abolitionists ap- 
pear to any as unduly severe, let it remembered, that the direct aim 
of these people is to destroy us by the most shocking of all processes ; 
and that, having a large portion of the civilized world for their au- 
dience, they daily and systematically heap upon us the vilest calum- 
nies and most unmitigated abuse. Clergymen lay aside their bibles, 
and females unsex themselves, to carry on this horrid warfare against 
slave holders. 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY." 



INTRODUCTION. 



The original of the essay which follows was originally pub- 
lished in the pages of the Southern Literary Messenger, 
sometime in the year 1837. At that period the subject had 
not so greatly engaged the attention of the Southern people, 
as in more recent years ; the progress of the anti-Slavery 
sentiment, in the Northern States and other regions, not hav- 
ing shown itself so active, pressing and insolent as it has 
jsince become. The very favorable opinion with which the 
article was, at the time, received, and the demand for copies, 
prompted its republication, in the form of a separate pamph- 
let, which appeared in 1838. This pamphlet was dedicated 
ito the Honorable, the Delegates from South Carolina, in the 
\Congress of the United States, in the following language : 
r Gentlemen : 

" If I did not regard you as representatives, not 

ess of the interests of the slave of Carolina, than of the 

rights of his owner, I should not trouble you with this in- 

Ipeription, nor the press with the publication of this little 

Ibssay. Originally put forth in one of our Southern periodi- 



* Being a brief review of the writings of Miss Martineau, and 
)ther persons, on the subject of Negro Slavery, as it now exists in 
the United States. By "W. Gilmore Simais, Esq., of South Carolina. 



176 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

cals, it has been so far honored by the approbation of its 
readers, as to make it desirable, in the estimation of many, 
that it should have a more extended circulation. This it 
should not have, if I could bring myself for au instant to be- 
lieve, that I was moved to its preparation by any motive but 
a sincere desire for the truth ; or, if I could doubt that it con- 
tains principles which no sophistry can subvert, and no mis- 
applied ingenuity, whether of sheer cunning or of self-blinding 
philanthropy, could keep from the ultimate reception of man- 
kind. The argument, indeed, is chiefly drawn from what 
would seem to be the inevitable sense of mankind upon the 
subject of which it treats, as that sense is illustrated and 
shown by the practices and the necessities of men throughout 
the world, and through all its successive ages, from its known 
beginning. I will not seek, therefore, to fortify my views by 
the accumulation of authorities which he who runs may read) 
In my humble notion, the whole world of human experience 
is tributary to their maintenance; and I would as soon doubt 
that it is truth which I profess, as question the final triumph 
of those opinions upon which the practice of all nations has^ 
invariably settled down. I speak now, only, as I deem it de- 
sirable that we should facilitate the advent of truth, and not* 
because I have any doubts of her final coming. We should ' 
labor in her assistance, not so much because she may need 
our service, as because our feeble race stands so grievously in r 
need of hers. This we can best do, not by persuasive and 
specious doctrines, and fine flexible sayings, but simply by a > 
firm adherence to what we know, and to what we think we 
have already gained. As yet, we have, confessedly, but par- 
tial glimmerings of her divine presence, — her fixed and all' 
sufficing light! — we must treasure up these gleams and 
glimpses, few and feeble though they be, until, to our more* 
familiar eyes, star by star, she unfolds her perfect form, and, 



> 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 177 

II with the loveliness and the light of heaven, irradiates the dim 
; cloud that now hangs between her and the earth. That we 
I shall pray long and vainly for this ideal of the moral world— 
. . that we shall look for it, with but little hope, whether in your 
j| day or in mine— is not a matter of difficult prediction while 
I there are so many, and so bold, prophets that proclaim them- 
I selves adversely throughout the laud. But, that the contin- 
I ued and cheering presence of this blessed hope in the hearts 

■ of the few, will at length achieve what they so earnestly seek 
I and sometimes die to realize, may be predicted with not less 

■ confidence. Let us, at least, labor that we may verify our 
I own desires, and find renewed impulse to our labors, as we 
J behold the industry of those who toil against us, and those 

things, which we conceive'to be justified by their perfect con- 
sonance with the divine law. We may neither of us do much 
in this holy cause, but, if we gather, each, but a single shell 
from the great ocean of truth-to employ the fancy of one 
whose constant thought was the best philanthropy— we shall 
at least diminish the toils of those who shall follow in our 
footsteps along the shores of the same solitary and unknown 
regions." 

There is nothing in the tone or sentiment of the preceding 
:hat the author would change, and the interval which has 
lapsed since the publication of the essay and the present 
ime, has confirmed him in most of his convictions, while 
cabling him greatly to enlarge the sphere of his observations 
md to add to the number of his facts. 

It is thought by the present publishers, that the views here 
xpressed, may still serve a useful purpose, in connection with 
hose of others, in the defence of a domestic institution, 
ihich we hold to be not simply within the sanctions of jus- 
ce and propriety, b ut as constituting; one of th« mnd a^ . 
£ agencies, under the j^^q^]^ forpromotio^rgT gen- 



178 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 



pv nj proo-rppg nt pu -iliTfltinn. n rid fop - el evatin g, to a c ondition 
o ? humanity, a people otlienvise ba rbarou s, pn*ily dp-prnvprl, 
and needing thehclp of a superior condition — a power from 



.savage sta te. In 
consenting to this republication, I am not unaware of tlTeTlis- 
advantages under which it must labor, in comparison with 
other essays subsequently written. When I wrote, but little 
had been said in defence of African Slavery in Ameiica. 
Prescription was against it everywhere. All our maxims, 
our declamation, the pet phrases, equally of philanthropy and 
of demagogueism, were designed to render it odious and 
criminal ; and, in the defence usually offered, on the part of 
those who maintained it, it was generally admitted that a 
wrong had been done, and that a social evil did exist, which 
expediency alone denied that we should seek to repair, or put 
away from us. The author was among the very few who 
took other and higher grounds. He denied that any wrong 
had been done to the African, in making him labor in Amer- 
ica. He denied that any evil, but rather a great good and 
blessing, accrued from his appropriate but subordinate em- 
ployment in the States of the South. /pEIe contended, that the 
institution of Slavery, per se, was not in violation of the di- 
vine law ; that it had existed, in all ages, and from the earliest 
periods, under the immediate sanction of Heaven ; and that 
most nations, while it endured among them, were in the en- 
joyment of the highest human prosperity. J; But the argument 
of the essay need not be anticipated "here. Enough that, 
under certain slavish habits of thinking, many of these opin- 
ions were regarded as heresies, even in the South. It was 
not easy, even with the interests of the community to support 
the truth, to eradicate that falsehood from their minds, which 
had been the growth of prescription and the habit of 
thought, of phrase and formula, for a hundred years — errors 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 1*79 

of opinion, when habitual, being entirely hostile to all inde- 
pendent and honest thinking. But the progress of fifteen 
years, since the first publication of this essay, has effected a 
corresponding progress to independence in the opinion and 
sentiment of our people. Forced, by external and hostile 
pressure, to re-examine the argument, the grounds upon 
which their title rests to the labor of their slaves, they have 
found themselves fortified by higher authority than they had 
originally claimed in mere expediency. It is one of the happy 
results of evil always, according to the benign decree of pro- 
vidence, that it must ultimately work out the fruits of good, 
in despite of its malicious contriver; and it should be a sub- 
ject of great gratification to the people of the South, that 
abolition, with all its annoyances and offences against our 
peace and safety, has resulted in our moral reassurance, — in 
the establishing, to our own perfect conviction, our right to the 
labor of our slaves, and in relieving us from all that doubt, that 
morbid feeling of weakness in respect to the moral of our claim, 
which was undoubtedly felt so long as we forebore the proper / 
consideration of the argument. Twenty years ago, few per- 
sons in the South undertook to justify Negro Slavery, except 
on the score of necessity. Now, very few persons in the same 
region, question their perfect right to the labor of their 
slaves, — and more, — their moral obligation to keep them still 
subject, as slaves, and to compel their labor, so long as they 
remain the inferior beings which we find them now, and which 
they seem to have been from the beginning. This is a great 
good, the fruit wholly of the hostile pressure. It has forced 
us to examine into the sources of the truth ; to reject the 
specious formula, which originally deluded us, and still de- 
ludes so many ; and to feel the strength of our argument, by 
which we are justified to our own consciences, and to know our 
justification, as slave-holders, to be complete, according to all 



J 



180 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

proper morals, and in accordance equally -with sacred and 
profane experience. 

I have but to add that, in the revision of the review which 
follows, I have not confined myself to a consideration of the 
case, according to the condition of the country when it was 
written, the lights then possessed and the opinions entertained. 
I have not scrupled to make such additions, alterations and 
amendments, as my own longer experience, as well as that of 
our people, and the subsequent thought given to the subject, 
shall have suggested as proper and useful to the discussion. 
In the plan of my paper, I have made no changes. It has 
seemed to me proper that I should still address myself to 
Miss Martineau, as fairly representing that tribe whose rest- 
less eagerness, morbid self-esteem, and complacent philanthro- 
py — never so well satisfied as when, preaching reform, it 
designs revolution — are at the bottom of all the dangers 
which threaten the existing civilization and safety of mankind, /j 
In showing up her mistakes of fact and opinion, I do but in- 
dicate those which are common to her sect; and, what is de- 
sultory in the manner of the essay, may be forgiven, in con- 
sideration of the freedom which it affords ; by which the 
gravity of the discussion is relieved, and the occasional 
employment of what is personal and anecdotical, is made the 
better to illustrate the case. 

Charleston, July 1, 1852. 






THE MORALS OF SLAYEItY. 



In the course of my wanderings, last summer, in some of 
the Northern States, a friend, who had possessed himself of 
the volumes of Miss Martineau, descriptive of her Western 
Travel, drew my attention to those portions of her work 
which related especially to South-Carolina. He was anxious 
that, as a native of that State, who had resided in it all his 
life, and who might, accordingly, be assumed to know the 
condition and character of its society, I should say in what 
degree the good lady had erred in the statement of her facts. 
Her inferences in respect to them, we were both agreed, might 
be reserved for after consideration. Her report, I need not 
say, had been by no means a grateful one. She had seen 
many things which she understood unfavorably. She had 
reported many other unseen things, equally unfavorable, on 
the authority of others; and her conjectures, and doubts, and 
suspicions, were of a sort sufficiently to show, that the indul- 
gent entertainment which she had found in Carolina, had not 
tended very materially to raise her estimate of a people, 
whom, it was evident, she was prepared to study only through 
the medium of her prejudices. My friend, who was a north- 
ern man, agreed that Miss Martineau was a very favorable 
sample of the more intelligent among the abolitionists ; that 
she had embodied pretty generally their authorities and argu- 
ments, and that her alleged facts, and the inferences drawn 
16 



182 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

from them, were such as constituted the materials of warfare 
commonly employed by the fraternity. To expose her errors 
and to answer her charges, was sufficiently to answer all; and 
as he was really curious, and, I believe, in good faith solici- 
tous of the truth, I was not unwilling to undertake the task 
which he pointed out, and to go over with him, page by page, 
the two thick duodecimos of the philanthropic lady. Pencil 
in hand, we noted all her points, not only in respect to Caro- 
lina, but all the States, so far as the subjects were familiar to 
either of us ; and the result was the expression, on his part, of 
a wish, that I should take up the matter in some of our pe- 
riodicals, and answer to her, as I had done to him, the charges 
which she had made against my particular province. It was 
only a natural opinion that, to expose her blunders in regard 
to one of the States, we should reasonably compel a proper 
caution, on the part of the reader, in the adoption of her au- 
thority in respect to any; and it might be that the sectional 
labors of one citizen would thus persuade others, in other 
regions which the lady traveller had disparaged, to undertake 
tli<- patriotic labor of following her footsteps, and correcting 
her blunders, as fast as she committed them. It was agreed, 
between us, that the first essential was to disprove the facts 
of the abolitionists. They had relied upon these alleged 
facts in the first instance, to create an antipathy to the slave- 
holder. ; To paint the horrors of Slavery, so as to revolt the 
sensibilities of humanity, was the first great means by which 
to show that the institution was unnatural and irreligious, and 
its tendencies necessarily inhuman. The rest was easy. Our 
first business, accordingly, was with the facts ; to dispose of 
these, was to clear the way to an inquiry into the institution 
of Slavery, per se, as a moral question. No matter how seem- 
ingly insignificant was the fact asserted, it thus became im- 
portant to the discussion ; and the insignificance of the details 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 183 

was not a sufficient reason for shoving them aside from con- 
sideration. The common mind rarely reasons independently 
of practical considerations ; and its prejudices, by which the 
most wholesome laws are overthrown, are morally founded in 
matters of fact, which, intrinsically, have, perhaps, no sort of 
bearing upon the morals of the subject. To assert, as we do 
in argument, that there is no course so illogical as that which 
reasons from the abuse against the use, is scarcely sufficient 
for oar purpose when dealing with the ignorant. It must be 
our care, also, to show the gross exaggeration, if not utter 
mis-statement, in the matter of the abuse; — show that the 
morals of the philanthropist do not deny that he should lie 
ad libitum, even when he proposes nothing less than a holy 
warfare in the cause of truth ; and that if Slavery in the States 
of the South is to be overthrown, it must be by argument 
drawn from intrinsic considerations of the institution itself, 
and not from the alleged inhumanity of the slave-hold.r. 

I was not unwilling to comply with the request of my 
friend — not unwilling to assist the stranger to our country in 
arriving at a knowledge — which appears so equally difficult 
and necessary —of a region of the world, which our foreign 
brethren are so well pleased to insist upon as barbarous. But 
here, at the very threshold of the subject, my pride revolted 
at the task. Why should we account to these people ? 
What are they that they should subject us to the question ? 
We are their equals ; sprung from the same stocks, in pos- 
session of the same authorities, learning at the same schools, 
taught from the same books, by the same great masters 
of thought and language, and in the fall assertion of an equal 
civilization and freedom. Speaking once with Miss C. Sedg- 
wick, — a lady whom, in spite of her abolition prejudices, I 
greatly esteem, — in respect to the gradual progress of the 
negro under our care and tuition, to the exercise of a higher 



184 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

moral and intellect than he had ever exhibited, as a freeman in 
his own or in any country, she asked " But what security do 
you give us that you will continue to advance him?" The 
natural reply was immediate. " Give ]/ M~J&vuxxtj J . You 
mistake. We offer you none. We are your equals. "We 
owe you no accountability. Ourj^sjDon^ibJJity' is to God and 
our own consciences alone." The same natural pride would 
prompt us to answer the seorner with scorn, and the assailant 
with defiance. What we offer is voluntary. What we put 
Am record, is not in our defence, but in the assertion of the 
'"'truth, and that we may furnish the due authorities to history. 
The very approach to the subject, on the part of the stranger, 
is an implied impertinence. It goes on the assumption of 
our inferiority, as well as our error. The Southern people 
form a nation, and, as such, it derogates from their dignity 
that they should be called to answer at the tribunals of any 
other nation. When that call shall be definitely or impera- j 
lively made, they will answer with their weapons, and in no 
other language than that of war to the knife. 

As individuals, the annoyance of such an approach is more 
acutely felt, since it outrages their personal self-esteem. The 
Southron asks with indignation, why it is that he and his 
people should be supposed guilty of brutalities and cruelties 
to the negro race, which are inconsistent with the civilization 
of that race to which he belongs? What do you see in us, 
our manners, tastes, opinions or habits, to lead you to think 
us less humane and intelligent than yourselves ; less consider- 
ate of the claims, less solicitous of the sympathies of the in- 
ferior ? And he may well ask these questions, with astonish- 
ment, sinco, what he sees, elsewhere, is by no means calculated 
to prompt his doubts of an inferior humanity in his own 
bosom. Yet the daily narrative and clamor of the abolition- 
ists teaches this very doubt, which it is their policy to incul- 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 185 

cate. In conflict with this assumption of our assailants, it is 
usual to ascribe to the people of the South a somewhat supe- 
rior refinement. Their grace of manner, courteous bearing, 
gentleness of deportment, studious forbearance and unobtru- 
siveness— their social characteristics, in general — all assumed 
to spring from the peculiar institution of Negro Slavery, as 
affording superior time, as well as leisure, to the controlling 
race — are usually admitted without question. The testimony 
of the intelligent European is commonly to this effect. That 
these traits should be held consistent with brutal practice, 
savage passions, and a reckless tyranny over inferiors, is natu- 
rally a great difficulty in the way of those whose habit it is 
to recognize good manners as, in some degree, a warranty 
for good morals. In regard to the former, the Southron, who 
is something of a traveller, has rarely occasion to feel morti- 
fied at the comparison with the people among whom he 
travels ; and his wonder is even greater than his mortification, 
when he finds himself charged with crimes against humanity, 
such as are in strange conflict with his social attainments and 
position. To these charges it is not his custom to offer any 
reply ; his scorn of the imputation usually rendering him 
unconscious of the assailant, whom he regards rather as a 
slanderer than an adversary. 

What is true of the relations of the Southern people with 
the Northern, is, in a great degree, true of the general rela- 
tions of both people with the British ; and the inordinate self- 
esteem of the latter, coupled with quite an adequate share of 
ignorance, makes it almost impossible to teach them, through 
any processes, except those of war, to accord the simplest jus- 
tice to* their cis- Atlantic descendants. In ordinary cases — ' 
viewing the proposition abstractly — and a colony, it will be 
taken for granted, must resemble, in all substantial par- 
ticulars, the country from which it goes forth. In its habits 
*16 



180 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

and pursuits, its tastes and objects, its general modes of think- 
ing, and the common carriage of society, its people will exhibit, 
with very trifling modifications, the race from which they 
sprang. This, which is true as a rule, is yet not without its 
exceptions ; and it is the pleasure of the people of Great Bri- 
tain to regard those of America as falling very far short of those 
superior standards, of mind and society, which they have set 
up as their own. Their travellers, accordingly, when they 
come among us, and write about us, do so with the air of 
persons surveying the savages of some newly found country — 
some Polynesia or Australasia — that fifth portion of the world 
for which they are only now providing fine names and proba- 
bly foul destinies. Their very first approaches among us are 
made with an air of superiority ; either of an insolence which 
contemns, or of a patronage which is scarcely less offensive; 
and they speak with certain assumptions forever in their 
mouths, by which we are required to waive altogether the ad- 
vantages of ancestry — forego any claims that might result to 
us from the possession of an origin, a language and a litera- 
ture, in common with themselves,- — and content ourselves with 
that place, on the lower form, from which it is scarcely possi- 
ble, or to be permitted, that we shall at any time emerge into 
honorable consideration. Our intercourse, in limine, begins 
with a distinct assertion of our inferiority and degeneracy ; and 
the pert noble, or the unsexed spinster, never rising to a con- 
sideration of what has been done by our branch of the family, 
almost single-handed, will impudently set themselves up as 
the social and political teachers of a people, which, from its 
own ranks, has produced, in modern and recent times, many 
of the master spirits of the world. One of the consequences 
of this practice, is, to exclude all such persons from the society 
of those who could best enlighten them in American facts, 
and give them the most just notions of American morals and 



THE MORALS OP SLAVERY. 187 

manners. Persons having a becoming sense of their own claims, 
and those of their country, never permit these boors to enter 
their habitations. They fall, accordingly, into the hands of 
those only who seek notoriety ; — of those who, conscious of 
inferior position at home, are eager to seize upon the titled or 
the notorious foreigner — any one, indeed, who can, by any 
possibility, lift them into local consideration. These persons 
conciliate the visitor by such concessions as, did they represent 
the nation, would wholly degrade it; and, not the least of the 
evils accruing from their toadyism is, that they suffer, without 
denial, the assumptions of the stranger at the expense of their 
country. This is the fruit equally of their desire to flatter the 
guest, and of their incapacity to engage in the argument. The 
enlightened Englishman will find little difficulty in recognizing 
the better society of the United States in those who make 
him the fewest possible approaches ; — those who let him see, 
at the outset, that their desire of society, however eager, is 
not to be gratified at the sacrifice of their proper self-esteem. 
The reserve of this class, towards the foreigner, is in due degree 
with the eagerness with which the merely 'pretentious press 
torwads him. What he hears and learns from the latter, in 
respect to parties, sections, or the country at large, must always 
be taken with a due caution, which never, at any time, over- 
looks the doubtful moral of that authority which begins with 
the surrender of the individual amour propre. 

The misfortune of Miss Martineau was in falling very fre- 
quently into such hands as these, when she came to this coun- 
try ; a circumstance which, in addition to the farther fact that 
her abolition sympathies conducted her naturally into the 
embraces of those who were hostile to the South, served suf- 
ficiently to fill her mind with false facts, as it had already 
been sufficiently stored with false philosophy. That she saw 
many intelligent and worthy people, besides, we do not deny ; 



188 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

but she saw thorn, and sought them, only that she might ex- 
ercise her favorite passion for polemics. She Bought them for 
the purposes of encounter ; and frequently chuckled, in fancied 
triumphs, over statesmen and philosophers, who preferred tern 
porarv submission to her tongue, rather than encounter the 
toil of appealing to a mind which, on certain subjects, was, to 
the full, as inaccessible as her ears. 

When Miss Martineau, after acknowledging the peculiar 
disability under which she labors, in being deaf, proceeds to 
hunt up and to dilate upon some of the advantages of such an 
infirmity; and, with an ingenuity which deserves credit, (and 
in New-England might have found it, had she withheld her 
remarks upon that region,) dilates upon the winning power 
which her trumpet exercises in a t< te-a-trte — we, at once, dis- 
cover the sort of person with whom we have to deal. Had 
she written volumes with the design of illustrating the pecu- 
liar properties of her own mind, she could have said nothing 
which better conveys the idea of the adroit casuist, ready and 
able to make the best case out of the worst ; — to raise subtle 
hypotheses, — to BUggest means of fight and defence in the 
worst cases. — to plan sorties and escapes ; and, whatever might 
be the fate of the conflict, if she did not " change sides," at least 
"still continue to dispute." The passage of her preface, in 
which this singular stretch of self deception (if we may so style 
it) occurs, is truly an amusing one. Her accuracy of infor- 
mation, she insists, is not diminished in consequence of her 
deafness; for her trumpet is one of " singular fidelity," and she 
"gains more in a tete-a-tete, than is given to people who hear 
general conversation." This is one of those pas-ages, with 
which the volume abounds, which most admirably illustrate 
the perfect assurance of the author. What person beside her- 
self would undertake to argue fur the advantages of being 
deaf ? To prove that the ears are but surplusage, is certainly 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 189 

to suggest to the deity a process of improvement, by which 
the curtailment of a sense will help the endowments of a phi- 
losopher. Here, she assumes cognizance of a subject, and de- 
cides a preference, which she is physically incapable of con- 
sidering; and, without thought — for the reflection of a single 
instant would have saved her from the absurdity — proceeds 
to determine upon a point obviously beyond her capacity. Satis- 
fied, herself, with the " charm of her trumpet," and fully per- 
suaded, as she seems to be, of the truth of what she has said, 
she is yet dubious that there will be some unwisely skeptical 
whom it is yet necessary to convince ; and the reason which 
she gives for the truth that is in her, may amuse many whom 
it will certainly fail to satisfy. 

"Its charm (the charm of chatting through a trumpet with 
a deaf damsel of a ' certain age ! ') consists in the new feeling 
which it imparts, of ease and privacy !" 

It does not seem to strike her for an instant that, among a 
people, like the Americans, who are singularly susceptible of 
the ridiculous, there would be nothing half so awkward as to be 
subjected to this chaiming tete-a-tcte. Yet such was the case. 
We know many intelligent persons who declined to make the 
lady's acquaintance while in this country, simply on account 
of her trumpet, and the awkwardness of such a chat in com- 
pany, who, otherwise, would have been very well pleased to 
know her, and who might have afforded her some very useful 
information. This latter opinion, she, perhaps, will not so 
readily believe ; since she tells us, in brief, that, during her 
travels of nearly two years among the Americans, seldom 
more than two weeks in any one place, and thus dividing her 
time among fifteen or eighteen millions of persons, she made 
the acquaintance of nearly all of the distinguished people, 
and believes that she " heard every argument that can possi- 
bly be adduced in vindication or palliation of Slavery !" In a 



190 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

note, only a few pages apart from tins precious sample of as- 
surance, she gives a little anecdote which will answer all the 
purposes of a commentary upon it. She says : 

"A fact regarding Mr. Gallatin, shows what the obscurity 
of country life in the United States may be. His estate was 
originally in Virginia. By a new division it was thrown into 
the back part of Pennsylvania. He ceased to be heard of for 
some years During this time an advertisement ap- 
peared in a newspaper, asking for tidings of ' one Albert Gal- 
latin,' and adding, that it" he were still living, he might, on 
making a certain application, hear of something to his advan- 
tage." 

So much for the story, which may be true or not. It is 
highly probable. And yet, it will be remembered — that the 
hardihood of our traveller may be the better understood — 
that Mr. Albert Gallatin has the reputation of being one of 
our most celebrated economists — a statesman highly distin- 
guished for his acumen and frequently employed ; — an eth- 
nologist of no mean reputation. It was left for Miss Marti- 
neau, in spite of the "obscur'ty of country life in the United 
States, 1 ' — which is peculiarly the nation of great distances, — 
to find out all the distinguished men, and to hear all the argu- 
ments that were worth hearing. The "charm " of her trum- 
pet, however, bring taken into consideration, some of the 
difficulties of the achievement were, no doubt, readily over- 
come. 

A little proem taken from a paper in the Edinburgh Review, 
furnishes the text for a portion of her preface. This text 
dilates, though summarily, upon the folly and impertinence 
of any traveller assuming, by a brief race through a neighbor- 
ing country, to generalize, for the people thereof, from his 
own partial and hasty observations. Miss Martineau, with an 
air of no little humility at first, acknowledges the force of this 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 191 

paragraph ; and is almost resolved, as she felt the reasonable- 
ness of its suggestions, to say nothing " in print on the condi- 
tion of society in the United States." But she does not keep 
in this mind long. Indeed, how could she, in utter disregard 
of the leading habit of her life ? To quote the paragraph, 
was only to serve its suggestions, as she does so many con- 
versational ninepins which she sets up, here and there, 
throughout her two volumes, simply to show how well she 
can bowl them down. This is her obvious purpose in making 
the quotation ; and she concludes not to mind its arguments, 
but to print and generalize, for good or for evil ; contenting 
herself with saying, most illogically, in defence of her resolve, 
that " men will never arrive at a knowledge of each other, if 
those who have the power of foreign observation refuse to re- 
late what they think they have learned ; or even to lay before 
others the materials from which they themselves hesitate to 
construct a theory, or draw large conclusions." 

No wonder error should breed so fast, and attain a growth 
so vigorous, when this sort of morals is to be inculcated. " I am 
not sure," says our author, " that what I tell you is the truth, 
but never mind, it looks sufficiently like the truth for all com- 
mon purposes, and with my dressing; and better that than 
nothing. If we scruple to say what we conjecture, we should 
perhaps know but little of each other, and an ingenious con- 
jecture is certainly a good substitute for an unknown fact* 1 Be 
thankful, with Sancho, and look not the gift horse too narrow- 
ly in the mouth." 

This is the gist of the argument. It does not occur to the 
good lady that the task of unlearning the error is perhaps one 
of the greatest difficulties in the way of the progress to the 
truth. But allowing all the credit claimed for her reasoning, 
it could only apply to a region of which there is no means to 
acquire better information. In regard to the United States, 



192 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

of which the people of Great Britain have it in their power to 
know so much ; to which their travellers crowd daily ; of which 
they publish accounts daily ; with which their intercourse, of 
the most imposing; and valuable kind, is constant, absorbing, 
and hourly increasing, the suggestion is a mere absurdity* 
The good lady knew of this intimate relation quite as well as 
any body else ; but she had a policy in forestalling the opin- 
ions and inferences of others. It belonged to her philosophy 
that she should furnish the guide points and the clues to the 
traveller; that she should shape his facts and construct his 
philosophies ; and this, not because she desired the perversion 
of the truth, but that she was sworn to the progress of a theo- 
ry which served all the purposes of a perfect truth to her. 

The same preface affords us another marvellous statement, 
in regard to the condition of Miss Marti neau'a mind, when she 
proposed to visit the United States. To those who know the 
lady, whether from her writings or from personal intercourse, 
the following passage will seem as perfect an absurdity as any 
of the many in her volumes. She tells us that she " went 
with a mind, she believes, as nearly as possible unprejudiced 
about America ; with a strong disposition to admire democra- 
tic institutions ; but an entire ignorance how far the people of 
the United States lived up to or fell below, their own theory. 
She had read whatever she could lay hold of that had been 
wrilfen about them ; but was unable to satisfy herself that, 
after all, she understood anything whatever of their condition. 
As to knowledge of them, her mind was nearly a blank ; as 
to opinion of their state, she did not carry the germ of one." 

If this be the truth, Miss Marti neau was capable of far more 
forbearance, on the subject of the United States, than is her 
usual habit on most other subjects. She was a democrat in 
England, writing incessantly on topics, and in regard to insti- 
tutions and objects, which necessarily involved a close conside- 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 193 

ration of a region which, to her class, conveyed in some de- 
gree an ideal realm of security and happiness, — perfect free- 
dom and proper philanthropy. She tells us that she had 
read all that she could lay hands on in relation to America, 
yet had leaiv.ed nothing. Is it possible that such was the 
case ; that the people of Great Britain, down to this the day 
of her writing, had left themselves so utterly uninformed as 
to a people with whom their original relations were so inti- 
mate; with whom they had fought two bloody wars; with 
whom they carried on the most profitable commercial inter- 
course ? Credo t Judceas ! Miss Martineau, at least, could 
never have left herself thus ignorant, whatever had been the 
indifference of her people upon this subject. She is one of 
those coarse, eager, bold, disputatious persons, strong of will, 
restless in search, keen and persevering, who are never satis- 
fied with themselves, until they have acquired some leading 
notions upon every topic to which their minds may be ad- 
dressed. She will store her memory with facts, or such as 
she deems so, drawn from no matter what quarter, and she 
will brood upon these facts until she shapes and resolves them 
all into tributary groups for the maintenance of whatsoever 
view of the case may have obtained predominance in her mind. 
She has formed a habit of speculating as she goes, — a very 
good habit, if her mind were not always subject to a bias, — 
and with this habit she has formed another, a far less valua- 
ble one, of declaiming her philosophies aloud, as fast as they 
accumulate in her thought. Nothing escapes her tongue, 
however much avoids her ear. No subject is felt too great, 
none proves too little, for her scrutiny. She shrinks from 
neither extreme. The shallows and the deeps, alike, form her 
elements, though she shows herself ludicrously striving to 
dive in the one, and to wade upright in the other. To those 
who, not caring either to wade or dive in such waters, will 
17 



192 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

of which the people of Great Britain have it in their power to 
know so much ; to which their travellers crowd daily ; of which 
they publish accounts daily; with which their intercourse, of 
the most imposing and valuable kind, is constant, absorbing, 
and hourly increasing, the suggestion is a mere absurdity* 
The good lady knew of this intimate relation quite as well as 
any body else ; but she had a policy in forestalling the opin- 
ions and inferences of others. It belonged to her philosophy 
that she should furnish the guide points and the clues to the 
traveller ; that she should shape his facts and construct his 
philosophies ; and this, not because she desired the perversion 
of the truth, but that she was sworn to the progress of a theo- 
ry which served all the purposes of a perfect truth to her. 

The same preface affords us another marvellous statement, 
in regard to the condition of Miss Martineau's mind, when she 
proposed to visit the United States. To those who know the 
lady, whether from her writings or from personal intercourse, 
the following passage will seem as perfect an absurdity as any 
of the many in her volumes. She tells us that she " went 
with a mind, she believes, as nearly as possible unprejudiced 
about America; with a strong disposition to admire democra- 
tic institutions ; but an entire ignorance how far the people of 
the United States lived up to or fell below, their own theory. 
She had read whatever she could lay hold of that had been 
written about them ; but was unable to satisfy herself that, 
after all, she understood anything whatever of their condition. 
As to knowledge of them, her mind was nearly a blank ; as 
to opinion of their state, she did not carry the germ of one." 

If this be the truth, Miss Marti neau was capable of far more 
forbearance, on the subject of the United States, than is her 
usual habit on most other subjects. She was a democrat in 
England, writing incessantly on topics, and in regard to insti- 
tutions and objects, which necessarily involved a close conside- 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 195 

Miss Martineau, should have prepared us for any other course. 
" Mr. Speaker," he said naively, "I know nothing of the sub" 
ject under discussion, but I intend to go on argufying it, until 
I l'arn all the necessary knowledge," &c. 

Miss Martineau argues, no doubt, with the same hope, 
though it is clear that her progress is not exactly in the direc- 
tion of the desired result. I do not doubt her real igno- 
rance of the subject of America, for the simple reason that all 
the facts in the world will not avail to make a simple truth, 
in the case of one who perverts them to the maintenance of 
a prejudice. As to the passive ness of her mind, in the forma- 
tion of opinions touching this country, prior to her visit, we 
may be permitted to doubt a little. She deceived herself, I 
am very sure, as most English travellers do, on the subject of 
this disj assionateness. The Halls', Hamilton's, Trollope's, et 
id omne genus, all allege the same grateful impartiality ; nay, 
the greater number of them insist, with Miss Martineau, upon 
their absolutely democratic tendencies; as if any well educated 
Englishman could be a democrat, in the vulgar sense of the 
term, and at the same time an honest man. But the word 
democrat, with the modern Englishman — I am not now 
speaking of the Chartists — has really no signification more 
profound than was implied in the old word Dissenter. Their 
notion of it implied no revolution — no absolute change, per- 
haps, — nothing more than a modification of existing condi- 
tions, — with a more indulgent recognition on the part of those 
in power, of the great merits of many, who sat in the king's 
porch, upon anxious benches — waiters upon providence, in 
better phrase. But American democracy was an argument 
in the mouths of these good people, since it is sometimes ne- 
cessary to appeal to the apprehensions, as well as the wisdom, 
of men in power. For this reason, American democracy had 
to be studied, and, if possible, understood. A similar neces- 



196 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

sity existed in France, and that gave us De Tocqueville. Miss 
Alartineau, possibly, had some design of doing for England, in 
this respect, what the former had done for France. She might 
■well fancy that there was some special call upon her to do 
this work. As a democrat after the English fashion — nay, 
something more, — as a perfect leveller, for the time, in Eng- 
land, the government and institutions of the United States 
(Slavery always excepted) might well loom up before her ima- 
gination in beautiful contrast with those of her own govern- 
ment. Our theories more completely harmonized with her 
own, — nay, most probably helped to originate them. She 
could not, accordingly, by any possibility, have escaped the 
formation of a large body of opinions in relation to our peo- 
ple, society, and institutions ; and that she had formed such 
opinions, and very decisive ones, too, in respect to them, is 
everywhere apparent in these volumes. It is, indeed, from 
opinions thus previously formed, upon imperfect data, or facts 
vitiated by her anomalous theories, that most of her errors 
have arisen. Her notions of democracy, for example, lead 
her constantly to overlook the fact, that, whatever may be our 
abstractions or her own, we have a limited and restraining 
charter — a constitutional compact — which overrules and over- 
rides, or should do so, every enactment of Congress and the 
laws. This fact is continually conflicting, in its operations, 
with the cherished idea in her head. Of course, whenever 
this happens, we fall short of our theories — our plan is defec- 
tive — the charter is anomalous — the people are corrupt. The 
ideal of the good lady furnishes the only correct standard. 

On the subject of Slavery in America, her detestation is 
avowed as having been entertained long before she entered 
the slave States. It was entertained long before she left Eng- 
land; and very naturally so. The subject, from the labors of 
Clarkson and others, had been the philanthropic hobby of the 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 197 

British government and people for many years past. The wisest 
among their statesmen doubted of the wisdom of this ; and the 
number of doubters among their wise men, increases daily, as 
the results of the emai.cipation experiment declare them- 
selves. But, for a considerable period, it was the favorite sub- 
ject of British declamation; that which cant most delighted to 
indulge in, and to which national vanity was most pleased to 
listen. The insane and cruel act which set free the slaves of 
the British West Indies, to the ruin of that region as well as 
themselves, was one of those tremendous acts of legislation, 
by which pride and vanity rear themselves monuments ; but, 
too frequently, at the expense of their country. Abolition, 
naturally, under the sanction of such an act, became the na- 
tional cry, the popular watch-word, the subject upon which 
every mil-fed British subject felt himself entitled to expatiate. 
The habit was prescriptive. There was no opinion in the 
matter. It was the result of no thought, no examination of 
the subject. It was simply the embodiment of a self-glorify- 
ing phrase, uttered and uttered falsely long before, which pro- 
claimed that the chains fell from the limbs of the slave the 
moment that he touched the soil of Britain ; and this, while 
Britain was planting African Slavery in America, and subject- 
ing the free-born chiefs and people of the East to war, havoc, 
spoliation, and the most cruel bondage. Verily, the only 
monument which truth and the future will rear to the atro- 
cious hypocrisy of such an act of grace as the emancipation of 
the West India negroes, must be that " whited sepulchre," 
which, in Scripture language, is made to illustrate that shame- 
less looking up, and challenging the praise of heaven, while 
doing the work of hell ! 

It belonged to the generally levelling tendencies of Miss 
Martineairs character that she should be hostile to the insti- 
tution of Negro Slavery without regard to its facts. She 
17* 



198 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

shared the prejudices of her times and country, and, though 
a strong-minded woman in many respects, it suited too well 
with her usual modes of thinking, to set aside the national 
prejudices, and, looking behind the mere name of odium, 
which attached to the institution, to inquire into its substan- 
tial working and results, by which, alone, the moral uses and 
propriety of any institution could be determined. Had it not 
been for this name of odium, and that Slavery had been 
assimilated with those features of government policy which it 
was her cue to obliterate, we shou'd have seen her, as we 
have in latter days seen Carlyle, boldly looking through all 
the mists and mystifications of the subject, and probing it 
with an independent analysis, with which neither prescription, 
nor prejudices, nor selfish policy, could be permitted to inter- 
fere. Her self-relvinof nature would have sufficed for this, 
had she not determined against Slavery, before acquiring any 
just knowledge of that condition which has received this 
name. On this topic, at least, her sentiments were decided 
long before she left Europe. When she reached New-Eng- 
land, the brotherly love of that region served to heighten 
this detestation, which thenceforward became so cordial, that 
all things and thoughts, whatever she saw or heard, only gave 
it added aliment, It was fed, we are not sorry to add, in 
most cases, at the previous sacrifice of truth. I do not mean 
to say that Miss Marti neau wilfully related falsehoods, or 
willingly adopted them. Far from it. I must do her the 
justice to say that I regard her volumes, as written through- 
out in good faith, and with a mind of the most perfect integ- 
rity ; so far as integrity may be predicated cf a mind in a 
condition only of partial sanity. But on the one subject she is 
a monomaniac, with all the wonderful ingenuity, to pervert 
the truth, and shape the fanciful to her purposes, which marks 
the nature of the monomaniac. Biassed and bigoted to the 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 199 

last degree on the subject of Slavery, she could neither believe 
the truth, when it spoke in behalf of the slaveholder, nor ques- 
tion the falsehood, however gross, when it fell from the lips of 
the abolitionist. The morbid quality in her mind effectually 
impaired her ordinary capacity, strong in most other respects, 
to observe and judge with vigilance and sagacity. Thus, for 
example, in proof not less of this bias, than of its demorali- 
zing influence upon her mind, we are told that the abolition- 
ists sent no incendiary tracts among the slaves, and that they 
use no direct means towards promoting their objects in the 
slave States. " It is wholly untrue that they insinuate their 
publications into the South." Such is her bold assertion ; 
yet, " Mr. Madison made the charge, so did Mr. Clay, so did 
every slaveholder and merchant with whom I conversed. I 
chose afterwards to hear the other side of the whole question ; 
and I found, to my amazement, that this charge was wholly 
groundless." Here the lady undertakes to decide a question 
of veracity, with singular composure, in favor of her friends, 
and at the expense of the first names of the country. Would 
Miss Martineau have done this, and that too in the assertion 
of a negative, if she were in full possession of her wits? But, 
so far from the denial being valid, " of the other side," the 
matter is one of public notoriety throughout the country ; 
leading, in some cases, to demonstrations, which were beyond 
question the gutting of post-offices, filled with incendiary 
documents, and public bonfires of their contents in the streets 
of large cities. 

" Nor did it occur to me," she writes, " that, as slaves can- 
not read," <tc. 

This is one of her assertions, her facts, which is as noto- 
riously false as her previous statement. Thousands of negro 
slaves do read, as any body may see who has ever visited the 
cities of the South ; but, the slaveholders allege — though the 



200 THE MORALS OP SLAVERY. 

abolitionists may deny — that, lest the slave should labor 
under this disability, and for the better conveying the lesson 
to the thousands that do read, gross cuts are employed in these 
abolition newspapers, and are even stamped upon manufac- 
tured cottons, of the kind usually furnished for negro con- 
sumption, and insinuated, here and there, at decent intervals, 
among the bales designed for the Southern market. Such 
bales were laid bare to public examination, in the city of 
Charleston, but a few years before the visit of MissMartineau. 
She might have obtained ample evidence from New-England 
authority, on this point, had she desired it, when in that city. 
" Slavery," says our author, " of a very mild kind, has 
been abolished in the northern parts of the Union." What 
xA knowledge had Miss Marti neau, except from interested par- 
ties, by which to enable her to pronounce so authoritatively 
upon the character of the institution at the North ? Slavery, 
properly speaking, never was abolished at all, in any of the 
States where it originally obtained. It simply died out, 
when it ceased to be profitable. In some of the States, no 
formal enactment was necessary ; and we believe it is only 
within five years that Massachusetts placed any such decree 
among her statutes ; if, indeed, she has yet done so. The 
New-England States were never, to any great extent, slave- 
holding ; their virtues were chiefly exercised in slave-selling. 
To New-England and Old England, the South almost wholly 
owes her slaves. They stole the African from his native land, 
and bartered him away, without a care what became of him 
afterwards ; their philanthropy by no means disquieted at the 
reflection that he might fall into the hands of those who 
might brutally entreat him — a people, not like themselves, 
proverbially God-fearing and men-loving. They kept but 
few of their captives among themselves, and those only who 
were least saleable. It was not profitable to use negro labor in 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 201 

the cold and sterile regions of New-England ; nor did any act of 
abolition, when it did occur, help many of the slaves of that 
country. The great bulk of their negroes were sold to the 
South long before it could go into operation. Few were suf- 
fered to remain to taste its benefits (?) except the infirm, and 
here and there an old servant of some wealthy family, who 
could very well afford to give him that liberty which the 
dependent rarely sought to assert. This is the true history 
of Slavery in New-England. We may add — what may be 
new to our British philanthropists — that it was from the 
Southern colonies that the prayer was first heard to arise, to 
the British Parliament, to arrest the further traffic in, and 
importation of, slaves ; a prayer to which the mother country 
turned a deaf ear always. New-England continued to steal 
and sell the property which she did not care to keep, and for 
which she now refuses all warranty. She would still continue 
to do so, if she could. Her ships still continue the trade at the 
perils of piracy. The South gave up one of its best securities 
against New-England morals when it assented to the abolition 
of the slave trade. But, to proceed with our author. 

It is one part of the policy of the abolitionists to urge the 
continual insecurity which attends the condition of the slave- 
holder ; to show that he sleeps upon the pillow of fear, and 
that his own convictions forever prompt the dread of ven- 
geance at the hands of his serviles. There is an argument 
to be deduced from this apprehension, if it could be shown to 
exist, since any human institution, thus guarded by terror, 
would seem to be in conflict with the design and decree of 
Providence. The condition would seem an unnatural one, 
and the moral which might be drawn from it would appear 
to be fatal to its propriety. Such, at least, is the assumption ; 
and it is one which we should by no means deny, if the dan- 
ger arose from the natural movements of the servile mind, 



202 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

and were not instigated from without. But, without engag- 
ing in the discussion of this principle, it is enough that we 
join issue with our enemies upon the fact. Miss Martineau 
contributes, in a small way, to this portion of the subject, by 
retailing a number of petty anecdotes ; — some ludicrous 
enough, and others merely foolish and vicious without being 
ludicrous, to show the feeling of insecurity of the whites of 
the South, and their dread of the negro population. I quote 
a single paragraph, by way of sample, from the collection of 
the lady, and will proceed to analyze it, in order to show 
the absurdity of the statement. In doing this, it will be seen 
how singularly obtuse the mind may become, even in the 
case of one so generally acute as Miss Martineau, when it is 
inveterate in the pursuit of a given object, and held in bond- 
age to a controlling prejudice. 

" At Charleston, when a fire breaks out, the gentlemen all 
/ go home on the ringing of the alarm bell ; the ladies rise 
and dress themselves and their children. It may be the 
signal of insurrection ; and the fire burns on, for any help 
the citizens give, till a battalion of soldiers marches down to 
put it out." 

Now, I take it, that, in any city in the world, slave or free, 
the gentleman who happens to be absent from his family 
when the fire-bell rings, will be apt to hurry home to see that 
all is safe, and to quiet the alarm of his wife and children — 
particularly, indeed, in a large city, where it is not so easy, at 
all times, to determine in what quarter the fire rages. It may 
be in your precincts, or in mine, but while neither of us 
know, we had better both depart and see. There is nothing 
at all remarkable in such a proceeding, let it occur among 
men in any city. Were they not to do so, it would argue a 
singular degree of indifference to the fate of objects and inter- 
ests, which, in every community, are considered sufficiently 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 203 

precious. There is surely nothing remarkable in the fact, nor 
is it peculiar to Charleston, or to any other city in which slaves 
are held. But, in a city that is largely built of wood— which 
in comparatively recent times was almost wholly built of 
wood, and that of the most inflammable kind —the resinous 
pine — where a fire extends with amazing rapidity, and where 
the ravages of fire have been alike frequent and terrible, — it 
becomes especially necessary that the gentlemen should not 
only make all haste in getting home, but that the lady should 
be equally prompt in getting her children and other jewels 
ready for rapid flight. All this would seem natural enough, 
and these necessities would seem sufficiently justified on other 
grounds than those of Slavery. " But," says Miss Martineau, 
blindly a* well as deafly blundering into speech, which a single 
moment of reflection would have made her quietly avoid — 
" The fire burns on for any help the citizens give, till a bat- 
talion of soldiers marches down to put it out." This is grave 
fooling enough. Who are the soldiers in Charleston, but the 
citizens, and how can soldiers extinguish a fire ? By guns 
and bayonets ? These two simple questions, had the lady 
allowed herself sufficient time for inquiry, would have saved 
her from the emission of such an absurdity. We have 
none but a citizen soldiery in Charleston, unless you regard 
the hundred and fifty cadets at the military academy as so 
many regulars, and count the score or two employees at the 
United States arsenal, as sufficient guarantees against the 
negroes in time of fire ; but, it so happens, that neither of 
these bodies leave their separate stations, at such a period, or 
seek, in any way, the scene of conflagration. But it is easy 
to account for the lady's error. She had got hold of the tail, 
rather than the head of the fact, and was resolute to twist it 
to the required direction, in obedience to her fixed bias. There 
is just truth enough in her story for the purposes of false- 



204 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

hood; but even this slender capital was too imperfectly under- 
stood by our author, to be used with effect. She was too 
eager to launch her shaft at the slaveholders, to observe that 
she aimed at them the notched, and not the barbed, extrem- 
ity. Let us explain. There is an arrangemnt in Charleston, 
by which a certain portion of the city militia — amounting 
probably to two hundred men, — is required to appear on 
parade whenever the alarm of fire is given. This body acts 
simply as a military police, and is really auxiliary in its duties 
to the ordinary city police and watch. It did originate, we 
believe, at the period of the anticipated negro insurrection 
in Charleston, in 1822; an affair which, we are disposed to 
think, stands quite alone in the domestic history of that place, 
and the scheme of which originated in an imported mulatto. 
But the original cause for the creation of this military police 
is no longer recognized as the necessity for its continuance. It 
has other uses. It preserves public order, which is always 
liable to disturbance on occasions of tire, and protects the 
property which has been rescued from the flames. So little 
is the popular apprehension of the slaves, that, of fifteen or 
twenty fire engines owned by the city, a large number of 
(these is entirely worked by negroes. Those who have seen 
their excitement on occasions of public duty, have heard the 
Babel-like uproar of their conflicting tongues, their shouts, 
cries, clamor, and peculiar eloquence, would be very apt to 
suppose that they had never been taught the first lesson in 
subordination.* Certainly no one would suppose that they 

* These facts were true when this pamphlet was originally written. 
There may be some alteration in the present arrangement, with 
which the writer is less familiar; at that date, the fire system in 
Charleston was supposed to be particularly complete. The city had 
so frequently and fearfully suffered, that improvement in the system, 
and refinement upon it, was inevitable. The citizen soldiery, we 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 205 

entertained any lurking jealousies or suspicions of their mas- 
ters, or stood on such doubtful terms with them as might, by 
possibility, require sharp application from the bayonets of the 
guard on duty. A sudden shower from Che engines would 
be more calculated to arouse their terror, and would be the 
most obvious resort of the firemen, in the event of their 
subordinates showing themselves lazy or unruly — the former 
exhibition being by far the most likely of the two. 

But, even did there exist among the people of Charleston 
and the South generally, an apprehension of mutiny and 
revolt among their seniles, to what would it amount ? What 
would it prove? What argument would Miss Martineau and 
the abolitionist brethren draw from the fact ? That the slave 
is a discontent. That the superior authority anticipates trou- 
ble and prepares for strife! Suppose we grant it, and in what 
then does our condition as a community, and our relations 
with our slaves, differ from that of any European people ? 
Why are there standing armies in all the states of Europe ? 
Why do grim sentries environ the highwaj's, the posts, sta- 
tions, railway trains, public walks? Why do the citadels 

need not say, do nothing towards extinguishing the fire, as the dear 
old lady states. That is left to weil-drilled companies — hose, and 
axe and engine. The city watch consists of about 100 men. This, to 
a population of 44,000, is moderate enough ; and, during a fire, would 
be of small value in preserving order. '1 he fire, guard, in biief, is an 
auxiliary police. The detachment is relieved every three months. 
Their duty, as stated in the text, is chiefly to receive and protect the 
rescued goods, and to preserve order; since fires are most commonly 
the work of incendiaries, who avail themselves of the public alarm to 
plunder. Nor is this the only respect in which the fire police in 
Charleston is superior There is a salaried officer, — an engineer — who, 
^vith certain assistants, is required to appear at every fire, properly 
provided with powder made up into certain forms, and with the neees- 
sary chev atix-de-fri.se, for blowing up houses — not negroes ! — in order to 
the more summary arresting of the conflagration by making a vacuum. 
18 



206 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

look down with grinning muzzles upon the streets of the 
peaceful city ? Why is the simple traveller, the single man, 
compelled to carry his passport, and get it vised at every 
stage in his journey — nay, why is he denied to journey in cer- 
tain of the states of Europe at all ? Why are the walks of 
the great city garrisoned with spies to report the sayings and 
doings of the populace ? "Why does England growl at the 
bare mention of Ireland, and present her bayonets, if she but 
stirs, in her stagnating Bleep \ And why does France burden 
herselt with the support of half a million of armed men ? 
Why does Russia the same ? Why is Austria only a great 
camp ? Why does New- York call out its militia to support 
the sheriff and collect the rents of the Patroon — and uuavail- 
ingly ? But why multiply the questions which can have but 
one answer? It is because authority every where dreads the 
revolt of the impatient, toiling, vexed, weary and ignorant 
inferiority — because, slavish and superstitious, anxious to luxu- 
riate in lordidden pleasures ; loathing the decreed toils which 
are wholesome ; envious of the wealth which they have not 
patience to wait for, or virtue to forbear to crave, — th^y would 
have the day's pay without doing the day's work, and long to 
vote themselves ease and affluence out of the possessions of 
the wealthier classes. That the people of the Southern 
States should adopt some precautions — some regulations, by 
which to make their repose secure — is only what is done in 
Europe, at greater expense, — in more imposing array, — with 
greater ostentation of men and weapons. It is absolutely 
absurd to speak of such police regulations as prevail in Caro- 
lina, as of any significance at all, when we consider the pre- 
cautions of the same sort which distinguish every state in 
Europe ; but, when we add, that the civil and military police 
of South-Carolina, and of any ot the Southern States, bears 
no such proportion to the total of the population as occurs in 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 207 

the states and cities of the North, we may quietly suffer this 
count in Miss Martineau's indictment to remain without more 
waste of words in answer. The police of Charleston is no- 
thing to that of New-York, making a due relative estimate of 
the two populations ; yet, in the former, such a thing* as a riot 
is never heard of. There, no portion of the population, the 
blackest and the poorest, is so degraded as to need to be shot 
down by scores for the maintenance of order and the security 
of society. 

In the chapter devoted to " Revenue and Expenditure," we 
are told, in an extraneous sentence, which is closed with a 
note of exclamation, that in " South-Carolina there is a tax 
on free people of color !" Had it not been that Miss Mar- 
ti neau was too well satisfied with the surface of the fact, 
she would have inquired farther ; in the New-England States 
she certainly would have done so ; but it was quite enough 
to show that in Carolina a special poll tax was levied upon 
the unhappy free negro. Let us complete the fact, and pro- 
bably do away with the mystery and injustice, by stating that 
the same free person of color enjoys an exemption from 
militia, from patrol, jury, guard and other duties, and is 
required to perform no military service in time of war. For 
such exemption the white mechanic and laborer — indeed, 
most white men — would be very well pleased to pay ten times 
the amount paid by the free negro as a capitation tax. But, 
says the abolitionist, these duties are privileges, and the 
exemption of the free negro, however grateful to his love of 
ease, is still in the nature of a forfeiture. Precisely ; but it 
is such a forfeiture as is conceived proper to his natural disa- 
bilities. Our women are similarly exempt. The system with 
us, whether it regards the free negroes or the slave, goes on 1/ 
the assumption that he belongs to an inferior race, to whom 
such trusts, where the rights of the superior race are con- 



208 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

cerned, would be improperly confided. I shall Lave some- 
thing further to say on this topic in another place. 

In the remarks of our author upon the policy and institu- 
tions of Carolina, to which I chiefly confine myself, there 
are numerous other points, like the preceding, involving error, 
either of fact or inference, which might be exposed with 
little difficulty, were it worth my while to pursue such small 
game. But, merely to multiply instances, when a few can be 
made to illustrate the whole, would trespass, without profita- 
ble result, upon the time of the reader. AH these blunders 
of our author are to be ascribed to the one cause — her bias on 
the subject of Slavery. This bias has been of .1 character so 
tyrannical, as to derange her intellect, and utterly to bailie 
her reasoning faculties, the moment she recurs to it. She 
can make no correct observations, or exercise any proper judg- 
ment, in any matter with which this subject is coupled, how- 
ever remotely or incidentally. To those who think for them- 
selves, and examine honestly, — her errors, in the greater num- 
ber of cases, as in those we have instanced, carry their refuta- 
tion on the face of them. They were unavoidable in a pro- 
gress such as hers, and could not but occur to a person who, 
like herself, pursued her travels, and made her observations, 
with regard simply to a support of her theories. What one 
wills to see is readily seen; what one resolves to believe, for 
that he will find sufficient proofs; and that which already 
constitutes a controlling faith in the mind, will never lack for 
a cloud of witnesses. Miss Martineau can summon any 
number. The vague apprehensions of women, filled with 
fears and suspicions in due degree with their ignorance, are 
already gravely written in her chronicles. Her informants are 
frequently Northern women, who have married and removed 
to the South. If not readily admitted into society, they 
revenge themselves upon it by their slanders. Such persons 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 209 

are always anxious to got away from a region where they 
can make no figure ; and their lives are wasted in envious 
repining"*, in complainings and vaporing*, and in a studied 
misconstruction of the circumstances in which they live* 
What Miss Marti neau hears of the fears of the Southern 
people, are from such witnesses ; and they serve her in stead 
on all occasions. It needs, for all such persons, but the slen- 
derest support of fact, to justify the most monstrous revela- 
tions. These charges against the South, drawn from such 
sources, are of the most hotch-potch character, and, of what- 
ever sort, they are fastened, as a matter of course, upon 
Slavery. Of the rapes, hangings, burnings, murders, which 
have happened upon the Southern border for fifty years, Miss 
Martineau makes a grateful collection, and licks her lips over 
them with the air of one about to gratify a very avid appe- 
tite. She records many of which the people of the South 
never heard. She enters into no such statistics at the North, — 
but sets out, seemingly, with the assumption that they are to 
be looked for only in the precincts of the slaveholder. She 
does not seem to have asked about the offences against good 
morals in New-York and Philadelphia, or the quality and 
color of the offenders in those cities. If she hears that a slave 
poisons an owner in Carolina, though this event may occur 
once in a hundred years, she crows over it lustily. The very 
instance which she records was given to her as a remarkable 
one, yet she wilfully assumes it to be a common occurrence, 
in spite of its notorious isolation. But the crimes of the free 
negroes at the North, with whose condition alone, the com- 
parison should be made of the Southern slave, entirely escape 
her attention. Crimes and atrocities which occur in all com- 
munities, and which simply indicate the bad passions and 
vicious heart of the criminal, are assumed to be peculiar to the 
state of Slavery ; while, the truth is, the South is confessedly 
18* 



210 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

the region of all the United States, where the criminal never 
prospers. Compare its criminal reports with those that reach 
us daily from the North. How many women are cruelly 
murdered in the Northern cities — sometimes by priests, some- 
times by professors ; by merchants and merchants' clerks. 
"What a volume of depravity was unfolded in the trial of 
Robinson ; and there was the case of Avery, and the case of 
Colt, and the case of AVebster — a series of the most bloody, 
base, cowardly murders, ai d all for money, or to get rid of an 
importunate creditor. So deliberately done, too, the crime — 
beguiling the creditor to the shambles, butchering him and 
cutting him up, and pickling him, and packing him away, in 
boxes, coal holes, privies ; decomposing him with lime, and 
acids and vitriol. And the criminals all among " our best 
citizens !" Of course, the offender mostly escapes, if he be 
not poor. If he be poor, he goes to the gallows or the state 
prison. The finding of the jury, declaring that the supposed 
murderer is not guilty, does not do away with the fact that 
the poor victim, man or woman, is murdered — nor does it 
diminish the aggravation that they are almost invariably 
murdered with impunity. The newspapers frequently record 
forgeries by priests, by priests' sons, and by the founders of 
splendid cities ; and while they wonder passingly that such 
good people should turn out so bad, their chief regrets are 
the loss of such enterprising citizens to the fine cities for 
which they did so much. Alleged rapes, by negroes upon 
white girls, are frequently stated by Northern journalists. 
"We refer to Mr. Tappan for such particulars as resulted from 
the examination of the Commissioners of the Magdalen Asy- 
lum into the morals of New-York ; and we regret that Miss 
Martineau had not looked more closely into the negro quar- 
ters, and into the various police trials of negro offenders in 
the different cities of the free States. Had she done this, she 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 211 

would have spared us the entire chapter on the morals of 
Slavery. Indeed, had she as narrowly examined the brothels, 
and the stews, and the alleys, and sinks of London — with as 
keen a nostril as she has thrust into the Southern country, 
she would have paused before taking ship for the New World ; 
and, as a good Christian, would have addressed herself to the 
augean duty of cleansing out her own stables. It is a mod- 
ern British statistician who tells us that, in London alone, 
there are five thousand persons who will cut your throat for a 
shilling. But why linger upon that royal lazar-house of suf- 
fering, infamy and crime, which England offers, in all her 
recesses, to the hopeless inspection of the philosopher. We 
have only to read the narratives of her own statesmen, de- 
scriptive of the sable horrors of the collieries, to feel that 
rebuke from Britain is the saddest and stupidest of all imper- 
tinences. It is to take a harder test, for trying the South, 
that we invite the comparison with the free States of our own 
country. Our crimes in the South are not only fewer, but 
very different in character from theirs. With us, such a 
thing as the murder of a woman is never heard of, or so rare- 
ly as to make the event a marvel. Our men engage in dead- 
ly combat with one another — proud, passionate men, filled 
with mortified ambition, and goaded by public indignity. 
But secret murders are infrequent. Throat-cutting to escape 
a debt or dun, is not among our chronicles ; you never hear, 
among us, of infernal machines sent into a family, in the guise 
of innocent- mahogany cases, to explode when opened, and 
blow a fearful household into eternity. But why pursue the 
contrast ? It is one that every day's intelligence only serves 
to heighten. 

The antipathy of Miss Marti neau to the slaveholder, some- 
times results in an amusing exposure of her absurd injustice. 
Take a sample or two. At page 44, vol. i, she says : 



212 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

" In the Senate, the people's right of petition is invaded. 
Last session, it was ordained that all petitions, and memorials 
relating to a particular subject — Slavery in the District of 
Columbia — should be laid on the table, unread, and never 
recurred to. Of course the people will not long submit to 
this !" 

Mark how her tone changes, in a case exactly parallel — 
when it is my bull which has gored your ox ! At page r 0, of 
the same volume, we tiud a similar proceeding of Congress 
dismissed with a complacency quite remarkable, when com- 
pared with the evident indignation of the preceding para- 
graph. She is now speaking of Carolina nullification, and 
the violent opposition of the State Rights portion of the 
country to the protective policy of the Eastern States. 

" Congress," says she, " went on legislating about the tariff 
without regard to this opposition; and the protests of certain 
Stttes, against their proceedings, were quiet/// laid on the 
table as impertinences f n 

The hatred of the white towards the colored population is 
a subject of her notice, and she tells an anecdote, of which 
she has probably heard only a portion of the particulars. 

'' Lafayette,' 1 says she, ''on his Last visit to the United States, 
expressed his astonishment at the increase of the prejudice 
against color. He remembered, he said, how the black 
soldiers used to mess with the whites in the revolutionary 
war." 

Had Miss Marti neau asked the particulars of this change, 
which she should have done, she would have found that it 
was a change altogether confined to those regions where 
Slavery had been done away with ! The black soldiers were 
employed, as such, at a time when their brethren (and them- 
selves also, probably) were slaves, and were modestly satisfied 
-with their condition of inferiority. By emancipation, and the 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 213 

petting? of philanthropy, the coarse and uneducated negro be- 
came lifted into a condition to which his intellect did not entitle S 
him, and to which his manners were unequal ; — he became 
presumptuous accordingly, and consequently offensive ; — and 
the whites, who could have tolerated him in his proper and 
inferior condition, were naturally outraged by the impudence of 
the creature when lifted out of place. There is no doubt that he 
is an object of dislike and hatred in the Northern cities, and 
with good reason. lie is a rival without being an equal ; a 
competitor without like responsibilities with those to whom he 
opposes himself. lie is presumptuous in due degree with his 
sense of irresponsibility. His habits of idleness increase his 
presumption, while lessening his moral, wretchedly feeble 
from the first. The complaint of the white population of the 
North is always to this effect. The blacks do uot labor on 
the same terms with the whites. In fact, they will not labor 
at all if they can escape it. They will do jobs, do light 
chores, brush boots, goon errands, sweep, tinker, and thieve, — 
the latter upon the same petty scale which marks all their 
performances. They skulk all manly and honorable toils, 
such as the white prefers, boldly undertakes, and vigorously 
performs. The black still seeks the position of the menial, 
and is despised accordingly ; in that position he is easily ren- 
dered impudent, for his conceit is intolerable when at large, 
like that of a monkey ; when impudent he grows offensive, 
and hence hateful. He must be always despicable in any 
community which leaves him at liberty, and where he shrinks 
from grappling with the higher toils and purposes which 
alone can dignify the possession of freedom. 

The case is for otherwise where Negro Slavery exists. In 
the South, the negro is not an object of dislike or hatred. 
There, he never offends by obtrusiveness ; he occupies his true 
position, and, while he fills it modestly, he is regarded with 



214 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

favor, nay, respect and love, and is treated with kindness and 
affection. And this would be the result. North as weTl as 
South, if he did not contend for an equality of position with a 
people to whom he is morally and physically, interior. When 
he does this, he provokes hatred inevitably, and must live in a 
condition of perpetual insecurity. If his moral were not so 
glaringly interior to his assumptions, and those made for him, 
at the North, he would be torn to pieces by the laboring 
classes among the whites. As it is, he frequently incurs this 
danger. I need not surely refer to the frequent drubbings 
which he receives, even in his wigwam, in the negro quarters 
of the great cities. It is to him no castle. He is sometimes 
torn out of it, neck and heels, by the mob, and his den de- 
molished about his ears. But, when these things bike place, 
our benevolent abolitionists ascribe the outrage to the influence 
of the slaveholders. Listen to Miss Marti neau, at one mo- 
ment, and she will persuade you that these slaveholders abso- 
lutely rule the Northern cities ; that their influence is sovereign 
for evil every where; and is mortally vexed at certain friendly 
relations between Boston and Charleston, of which cities she 
deals in terms not less insulting to their communities than 
complimentary to the minds by which they are supposed to 
be governed. But, a moment after, she forgets the prodigious 
influence over the North for which she has given credit to the 
South, and then tells us, that the latter seeks for disunion 
because she is without influence. She then treats us to a 
stock of anecdotes, showing the envy and hatred of the latter 
towards the North, because of this deficiency. Envy of the 
North by the South ! The boot is on the other leg, perhaps. 
So far from envy, the error of the South is in the indulgence 
of quite too complacent an estimate of its own resources. 
The South is frequently made indignant at the assumptions of 
the North, resenting frequent injustice and wrong which, in 






THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 215 

other countries, would be called rank robbery ! But envy — 
never ! That is not the Southern vice or weakness, though it 
may have many vices for which to answer. 

I could multiply extracts, page on page, to show the heated, 
the malignant prejudices which darken the eyes, and baffle 
the faculties of our author ; — but of what use ? A few spe- 
cimens may serve. She looks at all things in our country as 
through a blackened glass. The eyes of her mind are jaun- 
diced — they are not healthy — they never will be healthy, 
until she substitutes Christianity for that shrewd sort of phi- 
losophy which is so grateful to human vanity, and which so 
betrays the heart. Her eyes need the helping hand of that 
benign occulist, Truth ; and truth will only be able to touch 
them successfully, when she has first had them well washed 
by that gentle handmaid, whom moralists call Humility. As 
yet,. neither of them can do any thing for her case. Could 
she enjoy the restoration of one faculty, by the forfeit of 
another ; — could she recover her hearing by the surrender of 
her speech ; — there might be hope of her. Now, she is too 
talkative to listen, too deaf to hear, too confident of herself 
to learn, even should Truth, in visible embodiment, descend 
divinely to become her teacher ! But let us proceed with 
our instances. 

u When to all this is added that tremendous curse, the 
possession of irresponsible power over slaves," &c. 

There is no such irresponsibility in America. Ordinarily, 
and in most cases, the interests of the owner are sufficient 
protection for the slave. It is his policy to prolong his life, to 
preserve his health, to promote his strength, and to give him 
contentment. These objects imply adequate food and cloth- 
ing, indulgent nurture, moderate tasks, and, as much, if not 
more leisure, than is allotted usually to the laboring classes in 
any couutry. The laws protect him also — as a being of infe- 



216 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

rior caste, it is true — but the} 7 do protect him, in correspon- 
dence with what is the obvious policy of the master. lie is as 
effectually secured against wrong and murder as the white man, 
and his securities are as unfrequently outraged. The murder 
of the negro, slave or free, is punished with death. Wanton 
injuries against him are redressed by the courts, as in the case 
of the white man, and the courts will entertain an action for 
damages for an assault even upon his character. That there 
•will be instances in which he suffers wrong, blows, brutalities 
and loss of life, are undeniable ; but these risks are not pecu- 
liar to the slave. It will be time enough to ascribe these 
offences against humanity, to the institution of Slavery, when 
it is shown that free states and communities enjoy exemption 
from them. We insist, and challenge investigation, that the 
crimes of all descriptions, brutality, murder and violence, 
occur less frequency in the slave than in the free States, and 
that, even as they occur in the slave States, the negro is less 
frequently the sufferer than the white man. 

"A planter," says Miss Martineau, "stated to a sugar 
refiner in New- York, that it was found the best economy to 
work off the stock of negroes once in seven years." 

Miss Martineau's credulity, on the subject of slave atroci- 
ties, is sufficiently English. Such an assertion should not be 
made but upon the most unquestionable authority. It would, 
I fancy, be a subject of some difficulty to point out the Lou- 
isiana planter who finds it the best economy to wear out his 
machinery as rapidly as possible. It would be equally diffi- 
cult, I apprehend, to bring forth the sugar refiner to sup- 
port the indictment. As an honest man, — as a man of any 
sort — he should have denounced by name the heartless wretch 
by whom the speech was made. But this is of a piece with 
the usual fictions of the abolitionists, which most commonly 
defeat their malice by their absurdities. It is possible that 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 



217 



such a speech was made ; but supposing it true, it proves 
nothing. To show that there is an individual monster in the 
slave States, argues nothing against their morals. It must be^ 
shown that his case is not the exception, but the ordinary 
history. There is a work of fiction, recently published by 
Mrs. Stowe, which is just now the rage with the abolitionists ; 
the great error of which, throughout, consists in the accumu- 
lation of all the instances that can be found of cruelty or 
crime among the slaveholders. Admit all her statements to^ 
be true, and they prove nothing. Her facts may be suscepti- 
ble of proof, while her inferences are wholly false. Take an 
example from this very work of fiction, (Uncle Tom's Cabin,) 
which illustrates this error of reasoning among our enemies. 
She shows us a planter of Louisiana, as one of the most 
heartless, bloody, brutal, gross, loathsome and ignorant 
wretches under the sun. She gives us the most shocking 
details of his inhumanities ; but, in doing so, she herself 
isolates him. She shows that he resides in a remote, and 
scarcehj inaccessible swamp region, where his conduct comes 
under no human cognizance. How is society answerable for 
his offences? How does he represent the condition and char- 
acter of the slaveholder ? The very isolation of his position 
and of the case, is conclusive against its application. When 
to this we add, that the equal necessities of truth and fiction 
seem to have compelled her, though a Yankee, to admit that 
this brutal specimen is a Yankee also, we may reasonably, 
without shaking our skirts, refer his responsibilities back to 
his native parish. 

We have been apt, in the South, to think and to assert, that 
there are few people so very well satisfied with their condition 
as the negroes, — so happy of mood, so jocund, and so generally 
healthy and cheerful. Such has been the general admission 
of the traveller. But Miss Martineau, seeing through her 
19 



218 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

own eyes, gives very different testimony. She never saw " in 
any brute, an expression of countenance so low, so lost, as in 
the most degraded classes of negroes. There is some life and 
intelligence in the countenance of every animal ; even in that 
of the silly sheep ; nothing so dead as the vacant, unheeding 
look of the depressed slave is to be seen." 

The depressed slave, we suppose, will look depressed, just 
as the white man in a state of depression. There is no com- 
bating the statement as it is made ; but it is so put as to con- 
vey the idea that such is the usual appearance of the slave, 
and as the natural result of his condition. Unless this be 
meant, the passage is simply absurd and gratuitous ; nobody 
need be told that men who sutler will be apt to look like 
sufferers. It is the testimony of travellers generally — British 
mostly — and Miss Martineau among them — that the Ameri- 
can countenance generally (that of the whites) is that of 
a people care-worn and prematurely old. This is ascribed by 
the same charitable persons to the greedy avarice of the 
people, the degrading, intense and unintermitted worship of 
the " eternal dollar." The exceptions which they have made, 
when this sarcasm was to be established, were all in favor of 
the slave. Even in the pages of our author, we might find a 
dozen passages which go to this effect, and thus conflict with 
that which we have quoted ; and, but that it appeared to 
serve the purposes of Miss Marti neau's single object and 
argument, to show the brutalizing processes of slavery upon 
its subjects, we think it very probable that she would have 
seen very differently. The prevailing desire of the mind but 
too commonly imparts its own color to the eyes, and when it 
fails to do so, the perversely hostile soon discovers some in- 
genious method by which to evade the argument which is 
suggested by the senses. Thus, when Dr. Lardner was in 
this country, and on a visit to Carolina, he found himself 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 219 

forced to wonder at the exceeding comfort, and great cheer- 
fulness and contentment of the negro. He freely admitted 
that nowhere were the laboring classes better, if so well 
treated, as our slaves. Their sprightliness particularly com- 
manded his notice, their buoyancy and happy abandon. So 
far, his eyes beheld things through a different medium from 
Miss Martineau ; but the Doctor was philosophically per- 
verse ; and more ingenious, in the adoption and use of the 
fact, than the lady in rejection of it. His regret and com- 
plaint were that the silly negroes were so cheerful, so content, 
so happy, so well fed, clothed, and generally entreated. 
Why ? do you suppose ? " Because, it permanently recon- 
ciled them to their condition!'''' We ask, with surprise — 
Well ! if so, is not this prima, facie evidence that the condi- 
tion is the very best for them ? " Not so !" the Doctor sub- 
stantially replies, " for the sufficient reason that it conflicts 
with certain ideas in my mind on that subject /" This is the 
difficulty with ail these people. The Doctor was a better 
observer than philosopher. He blundered in this case, as he 
did in his relations with Mrs. Heavyside. The Doctor's eyes 
showed him, truly, that the lady was fair to look upon ; it 
was his moral philosophy that failed him, not his senses, 
when he broke the commandments, and lusted after his 
neighbor's wife. 

In further illustration of the tendency of our minds to 
control our capacities for observation, and the just use of our 
senses, I give another instance, in the case of another traveller 
in the South. Mr. Charles Hoffman, of New- York, a gentle- 
man of good family, and the author of several works of 
merit, recently (1836) put forth a couple of volumes of travels 
in the South and West. On his arrival in Virginia, he is 
startled with a spectacle, such as he has never before wit- 
nessed, and which painfully reminds him that he is in a slave 



220 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

State. "What is that spectacle ? A stout, able-bodied white 
man is beheld, sitting, or lying at ease, in his piazza, while an 
old negro is at work, hoe in hand, in the contiguous fields ! 
Is it not curious that Mr. Huffman should never have seen 
this spectacle a thousand times a day in the streets of New- 
York ; — should nut have beheld the wealthy nabob at his 
palace windows, along Broadway, or Fifth Avenue, reclining 
in state, under crimson or azure curtains, canopied like a 
prince, while the aged laborer plies his weary tuil, without 
cessation, in the streets below ; — driving the iron ram duwn 
upon the unmalleable stone, paving the highways, or, in mid- 
summer, piling bricks, bearing the hud tu the house-top, saw- 
ing wood and lifting luggage, performing tuils a thousand 
times mure heavy than any task which is put upon the shoul- 
ders uf the Southern slave ? The une condition proves the 
existence of slavery no more than the other ; and there is no 
sort of reason why the spectacle should give pain in one more 
than in the other instance. They both simply declare for 
the universal inequalities of fortune in all parts of the world. 
TBut it was the contrast of color which smote the eyes, and 
J drew the attention, of our traveller to the fact in Virginia, 
which he had never witnessed in New- York. In New-York, 
the negro is seldom caught doing hard work of any sort, and 
he wins that sympathy in the South, from the Northern tra- 
veller, which the latter does not seem to have accorded to the 
sufferings of the working class at home. 

M There is an obligation by law to keep an overseer, to 
obviate insurrection." 

This is said of Alabama. It may be true or not. It is 
possible that there is a similar regulation in Carolina. If so, 
it is pretty nearly obsolete. There is scarcely any need of 
such a law ; and certainly none, in reference to the event which 
is assigned as the reason for its enactment. It would seem 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 221 

sufficiently to justify the practice of keeping an overseer, on 
estates where the owner is not present, that the profit of the 
plantation would dwindle to nothing without one. In Caro- 
lina and Alabama, as in New-England, the interests of the 
proprietor would sufficiently suggest the necessity of such an 
employee. I know, indeed, of no part of the world, in which, 
if the subordinates be numerous, the overseer can safely be 
dispensed with, lie is employed, if not necessary, in every 
factory of the free States. According to Miss Martineau, the 
purpose of the overseer is to prevent that which, as a white 
man, it would be equally his policy to resist and prevent, 
though not employed as an overseer. He is in the same ship 
with his employer, and the storm which would sink the one, 
would not be likely to spare the other. But what would the 
efforts of one overseer, a single man, in charge frequently of 
an hundred slaves, avail against their outbreak ? The sug- 
gesiton is an absurdity. He is empolyed with regard to other 
objects ; to regulate, to direct, the labor of the negroes ; to 
see that they work ; that they make a crop ; to keep them from 
roving about the country, robbing hog- pens and hen-roosts, 
and doing those things which occur to the negro, as, perhaps, 
the only advantages that could possibly result to him from 
his freedom. As for insurrection, nobody who knows any 
thing of the country, or its people, has any apprehensions on 
the subject. Men retire to their beds at night, on plantations 
surrounded with slaves, without locking a door or bolting a 
window. 

" For any responsible service," says Miss Martineau, " slaves 
are quite unfit." 

This is not true. But, assuming it to be true, she infers 
that it is because they are slaves that they are thus irrespon- 
sible. AYhat is the fitness of the free negro at the Xorth — 
what his responsibility ? In the South, we have ample evi- 
19* 



222 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

clence of their fitness, whenever they are faithful. The Vir- 
ginia and Carolina negro is not only superior to the African 
savages, from whom they sprung, but, when they have had 
the advantages of training among the whites, the} 7 prove 
themselves very far superior to the free redmen of the coun- 
try. The latter defer to them in most seasons of difficulty. 
They make them frequently their own and the u sense-keep- 
ers" of the nation. The negro slave, Abraham, was the 
master mind among the Seminoles. .He guided the councils 
of " Micanopy" and others ; and had the policy of the United 
States been a little more subtle, they might have prevented 
the last war with the Seminoles, by proper douceurs to Abra- 
ham. In respect to this subject of the negro intellect in the 
slave condition, Miss Martineau's book is full of contradic- 
tions. In one place, we are told that the slaves show them- 
selves susceptible of education in numberless respects ; in 
another, they are denied the capacity to cut out their own 
garments. In the assertion of either case, the good lady 
makes it prove the curse and crime of slavery. If the negro 
is shown to have improved, she insists that it is an improve- 
ment in spite, and not in consequence, of his subjection ; and 
that his progress in a free condition would have been far 
greater ; — if he fails, and shows himself incapable, it is only 
because he is degraded by his bonds into fatuity. In the 
South, nobody denies their susceptibility to training; none 
who do not readily acknowledge and assert their improve- 
ment. There are certain arts in which they may excel — cer- 
tain employments for which they are specially fitted. Some 
of the best dress makers and tailors in the South are slaves. 
The mulatto has a genius for barbering and hair-dressing. 
The black makes a first rate butcher, and as a fish and melon 
vender is incomparable. His eloquence in crying his wares, 
however rude, is very efficient. In the cities of the South, 






THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 223 

the barbers, many of the butchers, and several of the tavern 
keepers, are slaves or free negroes, quite respected, shrewd, 
intelligent, and usually prosperous in all these occupations. 

Miss Martineau not unfrequently takes the position of the 
slaveholder, and argues his case for him, simply to show the 
weakness of his cause. The defence is usually pitiful enough. 
To show our own inequality to the argument, she records all 
our angry speeches ; and the disputant whom, on another 
subject, she would scorn to notice, is honored with a heedful 
ear, and a chronicled remembrance, when he utters himself, 
in a heat, and savagely, on a topic which is at all times apt to 
provoke us. " We have our slaves and mean to keep them," 
was never spoken by any Southern gentleman, by way of 
argument on the subject of Slavery ; but in defiance ; shortly, 
to answer an insolent party seeking to exercise a power in the 
councils of the Federal Government, in relation to a subject 
over which the Southron denies that government shall exer- 
cise any jurisdiction ; or in answer, perhaps, to some impudent 
foreigner, stupidly pressing upon a mood which his own pro- 
vocations have rendered irritable to the last degree. 

Speaking of the Southampton insurrection. Miss Martineau 
says — " It happened before the abolition movement began • 
for it is remarkable that no insurrections have taken place 
since the friends of the slave have been busy afar off f 
" whereas rebellions broke out as often as once a month before ; 
there have been none since." Of this frequency of rebellion 
we hear for the first time. In regard to the rest of this mat- 
ter, we shall say but few words. Our author confounds cause 
with effect. She should have said that the Southampton in- 
surrection broke out before the secret workings of the aboli- 
tionists had been generally detected or suspected. The insur- 
rections ceased the moment that the lovino- labors of the abo- 
litionists were discovered, and when they w 7 ere constrained to 



224 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

be " busy only afar off." The fact, as well as the phrase, is 
a very significant one. The moment that the South roused 
itself, grew angry, drove the abolitionists off, and burned 
their pamphlets and tracts, the insurrections, " which had 
broke out as often as once a month before," entirely ceased ! 
There have been none since. The good lady needs glass 
eyes ! 

The failure of Christian preaching among the slaves, in 
making them any better, is next insisted on as the result of 
slavery ; as if slavery, which requires submission and obedi- 
ence on the part of the inferior, was not really an auxiliary to 
the Christian preliminary of humility. But any one who 
should report an improved condition of religion at the North, 
in the free States, black or white, would greatly peril his 
honest conscience. 

" The testimony of slaveholders was explicit as to no moral 
improvement having taken place in consequence of the intro- 
duction of religion. There was less singing and dancing ; 
but as much lying, drinking and stealing as ever." 

The question might here be asked, who are the authorities 
for the statement? It is too general and sweeping to be true. 
In regard to some regions, the report is false; and in others 
it is, perhaps, only true, in consequence of the peculiar quality 
of the so-called religion which wast aught. But the vices 
named are not confined to the slaves; and the budget of hor- 
rors, brutalities and miscellaneous crimes, which the book of 
Miss M. unfolds, as of occurrence among the free people of 
the country, should have taught her to hesitate ere she 
ascribed the short-comings of the negro to slavery. The 
very abolition of singing and dancing, as the result of the 
religion, must sufficiently show the sort of religion which was 
busy ; and should certainly have produced some doubt, in the 
mind of one so subtle on most subjects as the writer, whether 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 225 

the religion itself which, at the outset, subverted the innocent 
and natural recreations of a simple people, was not likely to 
produce even greater evils than it professed to cure. The 
philosophical mind has long since been anxiously watchful of 
the fearful progress of a gloomy bigotry throughout the 
land. Miss Martineau should not have treated it so blindly — 
suffering her own infirmity to obscure to her view a subject 
of the greatest popular importance. She should have re- 
membered, while ascribing to slavery the defeat and failure 
of the professors of religion to make any impression upon the 
slaves, what she has herself said of their progress among the 
red men, who are freed from all the restraints which she 
deems so pernicious to the black. The gloomy and ascetic 
doctrines of our teachers have resulted only in the greater 
depravation of the savage : while the French Catholics, who 
taught an easier faith, and indulgent laws of exercise and 
recreation, have been eminently successful in improving them. 
" Near Little Traverse, in the north-west part of Michigan," 
says Miss Martineau, "there is an Indian village, full of 
orderly and industrious inhabitants, employed chiefly in agri- 
culture. The English and Americans have never succeeded 
with the aborigines so well as the French ; and it may be 
doubted whether the clergy have been a much greater blessing 
than the traders." 

There is one passage in Miss Martineau's book which calls 
for the serious attention of the philosopher. We quote the 
passage entire. She is describing the State asylum for luna- 
tics, in Columbia, South-Carolina. " I observed that no peo- 
ple of color were visible in any part of the establishment. I 
inquired whether negroes were as subject to insanity as whites. 
Probably ; but no means were known to have been taken to 
ascertain the fact. From the violence of their passions, there 
could be no doubt that insanity must exist among them. 



226 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

Were such insane negroes ever seen? No one present bad 
ever seen any. Where were they, then ? It was some time 
before I could get a clear answer to this : but my friend, the 
physician, said, at length, that he had no doubt they were kept 
in outhouses, chained to logs, to prevent their doing mis- 
chief." 

It is singular, indeed, that we should find so very few insane 
persons among the blacks. The absence of all care for the 
morrow, for the future, for their own support in age, and the 
support of their children, together with the restraints of labor, 
tending to the subjection of those intense passions of which 
Miss Martineau speaks, and which are not in consequence so 
active, I am inclined to think, in the negro, as in the white 
man, must greatly abridge the tendency to insanity ; and it 
may be that the generally inferior activity of their minds, 
is one cause of their freedom from this dreadful malady. 
Certain it is, that we have few or no madmen among the 
negroes. The idea that they are chained in out- houses to 
logs, is idle enough ; since, in that condition, they would 
require the constant attention of one or more able slaves, 
which a master would not be willing to afford ; and would 
be, in other respects, a monstrous annoyance. Were insanity 
at all common among them, "it would be," in Miss Marti - 
neau's own language, " the interest of masters to provide for 
their useless or mischievous negroes ;" — and this — were there 
sufficient occasion — would have been the case. But, in truth 
there is little or no madness in South-Carolina, whether 
among black or white.* The lunatic asylum is not a popular 

* Since these passages were penned, the United States census con- 
firms our facts, and thus justifies our inferences. The reader need not 
be reminded of the official statement of Mr. Calhoun, when Secretary 
of State, under Tyler, comparing the relative insanity of the North 
and South, and the blind rage which followed the exposure among 
the abolitionists. 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 227 

institution in the State, as it is known to be unprofitable, 
and was believed to be unnecessary. The patients are usually 
very few — not enough to support the establishment — and 
these, in half the number of instances, are drawn from other 
States. The few cases of madness known in the State, prior 
to the establishment of the present asylum, were kept in a 
small building, devoted to the purpose, in Charleston, con- 
nected with the Poor establishment of that city. Among the 
inmates there were one or two negroes, both women — I do 
not think that there were more. The number was greater 
during the revolution, when the building appropriated to their 
confinement stood in the same neighborhood with the fabric 
more recently put to their use, and both within a short dis- 
tance of the place of arms, or arsenal, which, when Charleston 
fell into the possession of the British, was assigned as the 
depot for the reception of the weapons of the defenders. A 
melancholy fate attended the maniacs, in consequence of this 
propinquity. The American prisoners, ordered to deposit 
their arms in the arsenal, under the feelings of mortified pride 
and shame, which, naturally enough, followed the surrender 
of their city, threw the weapons and ammunition confusedly 
together, into the hall designed for them, without any heed 
to the danger of such carelessness. The consequences were 
dreadful. The building was blown up, the guard of British 
soldiers, fifty in number, destroyed, and the contiguous houses, 
the poor-house and mad-house, destroyed also, with the great- 
er number of their unhappy inmates. 

But, to return to our author. Miss Martineau does not let 
this opportunity slip, of conveying an imputation of inhu- 
manity at the expense of the slaveholders. 

" No member of society is charged with the duty of in- 
vestigating cases of -disease and suffering among slaves, who 



228 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

cannot make their own state known. They are wholly at the 
mercy of their owners." 

We had almost called these wilful misstatements. The 
grand juries of the country are bound to take cognizance of 
all such matters, and do so whenever occasion requires. The 
slaves, themselves, will always contrive to make their suffer- 
ings known, and have few scruples in complaining, whether 
they have cause or not. A brutal master is sometimes pun- 
ished, and always known ; and his offences against law and 
humanity, in the treatment of his slaves, are quite as often 
the subject of public inquiry and prosecution, as in any other 
cases over which juries possess jurisdiction. But it is not 
often that he offends by their ill-treatment. His interest in 
the life and health of his slave obviates the necessity of any 
particular supervision of the subject by the public authorities. 
No better security has ever yet been devised by man, for the 
safety of man, and the proper observance of humane laws by 
the citizen, than that which the Southern slaveholder offers, 
in the continual presence of his leading interests. It would 
be fortunate for the country if the securities of the abolitionist 
to society were half so good. As for the chaining of the ne- 
gro lunatic in outhouses, the notion is ridiculous. A case of 
temporary necessity like this may have occurred, but nothing 
more. A madman, chained in an outhouse, would be a suffi- 
cient source of disquiet to all the country round ; and the 
neighborhood would soon rise, en masse, and compel his re- 

o 

moval to a place of safe-keeping. 

There is one painful chapter in these two volumes, under 
the head of "Morals of Slavery." It is painful, because it is 
full of truth. It is devoted to the abuses, among slavehold- 
ers, of the institution of slavery ; and it gives a collection of 
statements which are, no doubt, in too many cases, founded 



i 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 229 

upon fact, of the illicit and foul conduct of some among us, 
who make their slaves the victims and the instruments, alike, 
of the most licentious passions. Regarding our slaves as a 
dependent and inferior people, we are their natural and only 
guardians ; and to treat them brutally, whether by wanton 
physical injuries, by a neglect, or perversion of their morals, 
is not more impolitic than it is dishonorable. We do not 
quarrel with Miss Martineau for this chapter. The truth — 
though it is not all truth — is quite enough to sustain her and 
it ; and we trust that its utterance may have that beneficial 
effect upon the relations of master and slave in our country, 
which the truth is, at all times, most likely to have every 
where. Still, we are not satisfied with the spirit with which 
Miss M. records the grossness which fills this chapter. She 
has exhibited a zest in searching into the secrets of our pri- 
son-house, in the slave States, which she does not seem to 
have shown in any other quarter. The female prostitution 
of the South is studiously looked after, as if it were the pe- 
culiar result of slavery. She makes no corresponding inquiry 
into the j^ostitution of the North. She picks up no tales of 
vice in that quarter — no rapes — no murders — no robberies — 
no poisoning — no stabbing. She has addressed her whole 
mind to the search after these things in the slave States ; 
and, with a strange singleness of vision, she has entirely for- 
borne the haunts of the negro at the North, and the degraded 
classes in the free States. She says nothing whatsoever about 
them. Had she demanded of Mr. Tap] tan a copy of the 
report of the Commissioners of the Magdalen Asylum, of 
New-York, of which he was the President, and one of the 
founders, she would have been told by that publication, that, 
in the city of New-York alone, not including blacks, there 
are ten thousand professional prostitutes. We do not answer 
for the truth of this assertion ; but as Miss M. has bestowed, 
20 



\ 



230 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

elsewhere, a most lavish eulogy upon the veracity and general 
good character of the abolitionists, and as Mr. Tappan has 
been heretofore regarded as the very Coryphceus of that fra- 
ternity, she will be able to determine for herself the degree 
of confidence which she should yield to this statement. The 
fact is, that, in the Southern States, the prostitutes of the 
communities are usually slaves, unless when imported from 
the free States. The negro and the colored woman, in the 
South, supply the place which, at the North, is usually filled 
with factory and serving girls. The evil is one for which 
good morals can offer no apology in any region ; but this 
may l»e said of it in the South, that it affects, there, a race 
which has not yet been lifted into sensibilities, the possession 
of which necessarily brings, with indulgence in the vice, the 
consciousness of degradation. It does not debase the civi- 
lized, as is the case with prostitution at the North. It scarce- 
Iv, in any way, affects the mind of the negro, and does not 
materially affect his social status. The case is far otherwise 
with white prostitution. The only way to judge of the vice, 
in connection with slavery, is to compare its practice in both 
regions, North and South. Prostitution seems to be an inci- 
dent of humanity, in its fallen state. Napoleon, rinding it 
ineradicable from the community, legislated for it, and thus 
ameliorated some of its evils. If the practice were not great 
in, and common to, all communities, savage and civilized, bond 
and free, it might be permitted to dwell upon its aspects, as 
they show themselves especially in the slave States ; but not 
as the matter stands with all. We may, and do, acknowledge 
our guilt in the South, but not as slaveholders; and, looking 
at all the regions of the earth, we may add, " those, only, who 
are least guilty, may be permitted to cast the stone !" 

We are perfectly safe in saying that two-thirds of these vol- 
umes are devoted to the slavery question, and in the States of 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 231 

the South. Now, the lady gives us a body of assumed facts ; 
now, her declamations ujx>n them ; and, anon, a subtle topic 
of metaphysics, by way of novel speculation. Setting forth 
evidently with the resolve to uproot and utterly destroy an 
institution which she has previously resolved to be evil, she 
sees no aspect of it which is not so. The kindness of the 
master to the slave is likened to the kindness which he has 
for his dog ; the affection of the slave, and his respect for 
one whom he looks up to as greatly superior, is ascribed to 
the fear of punishment, or the utter fatuity of his intellect 
Every anecdote of cruelty which she hears is religiously writ- 
ten down, and honestly believed ; and even the jealous appre- 
hensions of a jaundiced wife, who fears that her husband is 
no better than he should be, are chronicled with a sad so- 
lemnity — which is amusing enough — as the fruit of slavery. 
The outrages of the borderers — the frontier law of "regula- 
tion," or "lynching. 1 ' which is common to new countries, all 
over the world — are ascribed to slavery. Miss M., along with 
too many others, seems to think that none but well-bred, 
quiet, peaceable men, should tame the wilderness. All her 
stories of great crimes, of burning, and hanging, and stabbing, 
which she has raked up with such exquisite care, are stories 
of the borders. They bslong to that period in the history of 
society, when civilization sends forth her pioneer to tame the 
wilderness. Your well-bred city gentleman is no pioneer — 
he belongs to a better condition of things, and to after times. 
It is the bold, reckless adventurer, the dissolute outcast, the 
exile from crime, or from necessities of one sort or another, 
who goes forth to contend with the wild beasts, the stubborn 
forests, and the savage tribes who prowl among them. These 
people, naturally enough, become as wild, almost, as those 
whom they conquer ; but they have their uses. They are 
the lower limbs of civilization, and the links which connect 



232 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

the wilderness with the city. They prepare the way for civi- 
lization, if uncivilized themselves; and, however much we 
may deplore the crimes which they sometimes commit, we 
must content ourselves with the knowledge that these crimes 
seem to be unavoidable, under the circumstances, and will 
continue to be committed, by the same class of men, when- 
ever, in a new country, the presence of such adventurers be- 
comes necessary. This is said simply, by way of statement. 
It is only a record of the fact, which I do not seek to excuse, 
let it happen South or North. I look upon all violence 
and all injustice as brutal, whether it be the burning of the 
convent, the assault upon the trembling nuns, and their sub- 
sequent denial of justice, the frequent murders of women in 
places professing to be civilized, and where they are pleased 
to declaim very much about the outrages upon the borders, 
or the cruel 4t h neliings," at the South, of the sturdy incen- 
diary. These atrocities, in the settled communities of our 
country, may, most generally, be ascribed to the constant ap- 
peals which are made to what is called u public opinion ;" an 
appeal to a something — a power beyond the law — which is 
expected to take the form of an equitable jurisdiction, and 
remedy its Supposed deficiencies. This I take to be one of 
the great causes of so much mobbing, and burning, and riot- 
ing, and lynching, in recent times, among us. "Public opin- 
ion," so called, is very apt to become public action ; and the 
mob, whom an editor invokes to ridicule the militia law, will 
not hesitate long to tar and feather the colonel, who is some- 
thing of a martinet, and desires to sustain it. But it is not 
public opinion which is thus invoked ; it is popular passion, 
and a vain insolence, which are cherished and brought into 
activity by such appeals, and which then become a tyranny, 
being out of its place. Public opinion is of very slow, very 
temperate, and very judicious formation. It is the aggregate 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 233 

of small truths, and the experience of successive days and 
years, which, heaped together, form a general principle, which 
is of final conviction in every bosom. It only requires to 
receive a name, in order to become a law ; and a law which 
is precipitately imposed upon a people, in advance of the 
formation of this sort of public opinion, will soon be openly 
abolished, or become obsolete, in the progress of events. For 
my own part, I am satisfied with the existing laws, until the 
gradual and naturally formed convictions of the community, 
and the progress of experience, shall call for their improve- 
ment. I have no respect for those who set themselves up for 
makers of public opinion; and as for the "hell-broth" so 
compounded, I know not any draught which would not be more 
wholesome than that which makes the body politic a body 
plethoric, and leaves no remedy to the physician but the cau- 
tery and the knife. The evils of this sort, thus originating, 
are, by the way, far less frequent in the slave than in the free 
States, which really no not appear to possess a single principle 
of permanence and stability. 

A goodly portion of the two volumes of Miss Martineau is 
compiled from the conversations and opinions of Americans, 
who are nameless, followed by her examination of them. 
She sets up these argumentative nine-pins with the utmost 
gravity, and bowls them down with great rapidity and won- 
derful adroitness. Many of her arguments are carried on 
with women ; and as there are very few women so ''cunning 
of fence," on her own ground, as this professional disputant, it 
is easy to see, not only that she obtains an easy victory, but 
that she derives no increase of knowledge from the contro- 
versy. Her own estimate of the mental pretensions of the 
American women should have saved her from a misplaced 
confidence either in their evidence or judgment. Indeed, she 
only confides in their opinions when it answers her purpose to 
20* 



234 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

do so. She describes them as little above fatuity. The three 
chapters devoted to this subject, under the general head of 
k> Woman," present a singular and contradictory compound 
of truth and error, which nothing but a rabid desire for pub- 
lication could have suffered her to put forth. The minds of 
the American women, according to her estimate, with few 
exceptions, are little else than a blank. They have little or 
no practical philosophy — no thought ; — and they confound 
learning with wisdom. Wherever she heard of a woman 
having a local celebrity, she was sure to find her a mere lin- 
guist ; and she winds up her generally contemptuous estimate 
of the sex, by ascribing drunkenness to the more enlightened 
among them — a vice, perhaps, more - utterly foreign to the 
American woman, than to the woman of any other country 
on the face of the globe. "It is no secret, on the spot, that 
the habit of intemperance is not unfrequent among women of 
station and education, in the most enlightened parts of the 
country. I witnessed some instances, and heard of more. It 
does not seem to me to be regarded with all the dismay 
which such a symptom ought to excite." The wonder is, 
with sueh an estimate of the sex, she should have drawn 
most of her authorities from them. This she does, common- 
ly, on the subject of slavery. Her dialogues are mostly had 
with women ; and those which she reports are certainly silly 
enough, in most cases, to support her estimate. Fortunately, 
since the days of Lady Blessington's protracted conversations 
with Lord Byron, men are not satisfied with reports of this 
description, unless they have proof that the stenographer has 
been by, all the while, and busy. 

Another source of authority, with Miss Martineau, are the 
public men of our country — the members of Congress, of 
both parties, and those, seemingly, among the most violent. 
It does appear to me that she could not have erred more 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 235 

strikingly than in this particular : since the furious partizan, 
whether in England or America, is usually the last person in 
the world from whom the unprejudiced and ungarbled truth 
can be derived. That she should not have given the most 
implicit confidence to their statements, is the legitimate con- 
clusion from her own report of them. She tells us that they 
strove to make a partizan of her — sought to secure her fa- 
vorable opinions — and, on all occasions, exhibited much more 
earnestness in making proselytes to the party, than they would 
have done in securing them to the cause of truth. It is true, 
she is, here and there, annoyed with something in their con- 
duct that seems to startle her with the semblance of an in- 
consistency ; but she does not, even then, doubt the good 
faith of the speaker — when it serves her turn, or supports her 
favorite idea. She suspects the judgment first — aye, al- 
ways — with a self-confidence in her own, which is thoroughly 
English — the weakness — anything but the prejudice and the 
interest of party. The politicians of Carolina give heed, and 
bow ready assent to all her anti-slavery propositions ; and 
when she believes that she has them all snugly within the 
hem of her garment, she is thunderstruck to hear them vote 
aloud in approbation of Governor McDuffie's thoroughgoing, 
yet only half-elaborated, opinions in favor of slavery. To this 
day, she does not suspect that a polite Southern gentleman, 
in a ball-room, would infinitely prefer bowing assent to all her 
propositions, than gravely undertake to refute them, through 
the medium of her ''charming" trumpet. 

" It was necessary to purchase Florida, because it was a 
retreat for runaways." 

This was one reason, perhaps; but Miss M. seems to have 
"been imperfectly acquainted with the history of Florida. It 
may be well to inform her, that the best reason for the pur- 



236 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

chase of that country, is kindred to that which prompts the 
United States and Great Britain to maintain so jealous a 
watch upon the Island of Cuba, in order to keep it from fall- 
ing into the possession of any great maritime power. From 
the first, Florida, under the Spaniards, had been the scourge 
of the Southern States. As Colonies and States, they were 
subjected to the continual incursions of the savages, under 
Spanish influence; and the wars of the borders, between the 
two people, were among the most sanguinary of those that 
ever took place in America. St. Augustine was emphatically 
styled, by the early English settlers in the South, as the 
" Sallee of America." In later days, a more urgent neces- 
sity arose for the acquisition of this territory, as it furnished 
a foothold, during the war of 1812, to our affectionate mother, 
England, to plant her standard upon it, and summon her red 
brethren to pile up the scalps of her banished children be- 
neath it. Had Miss Marti neau read the history, she might 
have found stronger reasons for the acquisition of this terri- 
tory by the United States, than the recovery of its fugitive 
slaves ; though that would be reason quite enough, in our 
estimation, to justify the purchase. But, he who knows any 
thing of the American people, needs not to hunt up a neces- 
sity, of any kind, for their acquisition of territory, or any 
reason better than the greed and 'strength of appetite. It is 
quite enough that the land is in the neighborhood, and acces- 
sible, to be lusted after ; and the lust does not often scruple 
at the process by which it gratifies itself. 

Miss Martineau deals in unmeasured invective, in respect to 
the annexation of Texas, an event then only in anticipation. 
She has her nice little story, of abolition manufacture, touch- 
ing this region also, which is quite different from that told by 
the Texans themselves. But I need not linger upon this 
topic. 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 237 

Of the causes of the war with the Seminoles, she gives us 
the following history : 

"According to the laws of the slave States, the children of 
the slaves follow the fortunes of the mother. It will be seen, 
at a glance, what consequences follow upon this ; how it ope- 
rates as a premium upon licentiousness among white men ; 
how it prevents any but mock-marriages among slaves ; and, 
also, what effect it must have upon any Indians with whom 
slave women have taken refuge. The late Seminole war arose 
out of this law. The escaped slaves had intermarried with 
the Indians. The masters claimed the children. The Semi- 
nole fathers would not deliver them up. Force was used, to 
tear the children from their parents' arms, and the Indians 
began their desperate, but very natural war, of extermination." 

Such is the story of Miss Martineau. AVithout doubt, it 
came from the mint of the abolitionists — the people of such 
veracity. This version is entirely new in the South. It is a 
budget of errors, one growing out of the other. The laws of 
Florida do not prevail over the Indians. The children of 
slaves only follow the condition of the mother, where the 
laws prevail. If a runaway woman is recovered from the 
Indian territory, her child will, of course, follow her condition, 
under the laws of the State whence she escapes ; and there 
may have been an instance where the child of an Indian father 
is thus recovered, with the slave mother, and carried back 
into bondage ; but I am disposed to doubt even this. The 
occurrence is rare, if it ever does or did take place. The 
Seminoles own slaves, which are either brought from the 
Island of Cuba, or have been stolen from the whites, at re- 
mote periods. They are only transferred from one kind of 
slavery to another, since they are held by the Indians without 
any restraints of law whatsoever and are liable to all their 
caprices, of sudden rage, drunkenness, gloomy ferocity, and a 



238 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

malice which seems natural to them. Under these influences, 
the slave is frequently murdered, and the murderer goes un- 
punished. It is only such philanthropists as modern abolition 
provides, who esteem it better for the negro to be the slave 
to the savage than to the civilized man. The Indians do not 
often have intercourse with their slaws. They are a cold and 
sterile people, as is the case with most of the wandering tribes. 
Fecundity is one of the fruits of a settled and stationary po- 
pulation. The marriages among the negro slaves of the 
whites are much more formal, and quite as rigidly observed, 
as among the Indians, who are polygamists or anything. 
They are creatures of impulse, having nothing but the 
mood of the moment for their laws. The rule, that the 
child shall follow the condition of the mother, is not a 
stimulant to licentiousness among the whites, and we almost 
wonder to find Miss Marti neau meditating such a matter. 
She certainly knows but little of human passion, if she sup- 
poses that, in matters of this nature, the mercenary desire of 
gain will prompt the white man to such excesses, other pro- 
vocatives being wanting. So far from this being the motive, 
it may be stated here with perfect safety, that the greater 
number of the Southern mulattoes have been made free, in 
consequence of their relationship to their owners. In tact, 
mulatto slaves are not liked. They are a feebler race than 
the negro, and less fitted for the labors of the field. Of late 
years, some arbitrary laws have been passed in Carolina, 
which forbid the citizens to free their slaves. I do not ap- 
prove of these laws myself; but they have their advocates 
among the majority, and reasons of State policy are given in 
their behalf, which are imposing enough, if not altogether 
sound. I am persuaded that it would be a wholesome policy 
to revoke these laws. It would, in the first place, prevent 
their frequent evasion. A more important consideration is, 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 239 

that it would give to the owner a power now denied, of doing 
full justice to the claims of the faithful and the intellectual, 
without compelling him to banish them from their native 
homes, while bestowing upon them their own mastery. The 
war in Florida arose from other and more natural causes, 
which the philosophical mind of Miss Marti neau would have 
soon enough ferreted out, if the demon of abolition had not 
possessed her brain, and too entirely darkened her vision. 
The hunting grounds of the red men were too much circum- 
scribed, by the gradual gathering of the whites around them, 
to permit them to procure sustenance after their ordinary 
habits. The game had become scarce, and, as they had not 
yet been taught the first lesson of Christianity, as it is the 
first decree of God — namely, the necessity of labor — they 
were half the time in a state of starvation. Their contact 
with the civilized must always result — as such contact has 
everywhere resulted — either in their subjection as inferiors, or 
their extermination. Their only safety will be found in their 
enslavement, or in their removal to a region where the hunt- 
ing grounds are open and unci rcu inscribed. They must perish 
or remove, unless they conform to the established usages of 
the States in which they linger, and fall into the customs of 
the superior people. The government of the United States 
has aimed at their removal for many years; but this removal 
has been resisted in various quarters, and chiefly by the in- 
strumentality of those universal philanthropists, who are now 
known as abolitionists. They were strenuous in opposing it, 
and did not confine their opposition to the councils of our 
own nation. They preached resistance to the Indians them- 
selves, and encouraged them to stay where they were, and 
starve. Their eloquence, in these exhortations, overlooked 
the absolute necessities of the Indian ; and was chiefly devoted 
to the imaginary privations consequent upon his removal. 



240 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

They dwelt pathetically upon the loss of his home, and his 
banishment from his forefathers' graves ; and, in dilating upon 
privations such as these, they entirely forgot all the more 
serious evils arising from the state of sufferance in which he 
dwelt, in an abridged territory, and under a government whose 
regulations, his necessities, and his ignorance alike, drove him 
momently to violate. He must either beg, steal or starve. 
In seeking to avoid the latter, the commission of crime is fre- 
quent. The red men become embroiled with the whites, whom 
they despoil of their hogs and cattle, and whatever else they 
can lay their hands on ; they refine obedience to the authori- 
ties they offend ; they fly from the officers of justice, and seek 
for shelter in their wild recesses, their swamps and everglades. 
They are pursued, and, from their refractoriness, are treated, 
naturally enough, as outlaws, by their pursuers. The num- 
bers, on both sides, accumulate ; and blood is shed, and can 
only cease to be shed in the utter extermination of the infe- 
rior class. To avoid this dreadful necessity, the government 
has been laboring to remove them to other homes, and a 
wider extent of country, where they may follow, without let 
or hindrance, the customs which they like. And this removal 
is but a small and partial evil, in comparison with the many 
evils which must follow upon their stay. Our homes depend, 
for their comfort, not so much upon the associations of our 
childhood, as upon their fitness for our mental and moral con- 
dition. Men — civilized men — whose sensibilities upon such 
matters are duly educated, and made fine and susceptible by 
the institutions of society, daily dispose of their dwellings, 
and depart into strange lands ; and while we doubt not that 
all men must feel a sense of regret at parting from the homes 
of infancy and youth, we should be paying but a sorry tribute 
to their manliness, and proper nature, in regarding this as a 
sore and overwhelming evil. The Indian, too, of all people 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 241 

in the world, is the last to feel much, if any regret, at such a 
necessity. It is no great sacrifice for him. From the moment 
that his eyes opened upon the light, he has been a wanderer. 
He has never known a fixed abode, until the appearance and 
settlement of the whites formed a point of attraction, to 
which, with all the consciousness of his inferiority, he tacitly 
inclined. His fathers before him were wanderers, and, ac- 
cording to their histories, their whole lives have been passed 
in bearing their stakes from the wilderness to the seaside, and 
from the seaside to the wilderness again. The habitations of 
the Indians prove all this.* During the space of three hun- 
dred years — the time of our acquaintance with them — they 
have made no improvements ; they have built no house of 
sufficient comfort or importance to be occupied by two suc- 
fessive generations. Their habitations have been such, only, 
as they could readily remove, or leave, without loss, to the 
use of some succeeding occupant. Their towns — if the col- 
lections of filthy wigwams in which they fester and breed 
vermin may be called towns — are few, far between, and the 
men seldom in them. Their women have ever been their 
drudges, in the most degrading slavery — brutes denied in- 

* The account which the aborigines gave of themselves to the first 
discoverers, represented them to be the invaders of a people far superior 
to ihemselves in civilization, which their greater numbers and savage 
frrocity destroyed. This was the boast of the Indian to the white man. 
The antique remains of woiks, fortifications, temples, and other fabrics, 
which are dispersed all over the country, confirm this intelligence, with- 
out regarding the obvious iact thar these were remains utterly beyond 
the ability of the Indians to erect. This history, we may add, is the 
history ot the world, as we read it everywhere. The moment that 
civilization pauses in her conquests, she is overrun by the savage. She 
cannot rest in her conquests. She must conquer, not only to improve 
the savage, but to save herself. Let her pause, with an inferior tribe 
beside her, not acknowledging her sway, and she is overthrown. 
21 



2 42 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

diligence, and slaves to the most vicious caprices of their 
masters, without restraint or redress, unless it comes in the 
sudden vengeance of some irritable relative. Such a people 
have no idea of home. That is their best home which gives 
them elbow room, and full forests in which to hunt. The 
Florida war sprung entirely from want of such freedom, and 
we may add, that most of our Indian wars have arisen from 
the same single cause. The philanthropists who would keep 
them in a region in which they have no resources of life, are 
those only to whom such wars are to be ascribed. Still, we 
do not deny the wanton injustice, and the occasional cruelty, 
of the base white borderer. It would be wonderful, indeed, 
if such people did forbear the commission of injustice. Their 
labors are not of such a sort as would lead us to hope for 
their forbearance ; and the necessities of the savage give them 
but too frequent provocation for the exercise of their unre- 
strained and brutal propensities. The true evil is in the con- 
dition of things which keeps the two races in contact, yet not 
in connection. The inferior people must fly from the presence, 
or perish before the march of approaching civilization. 

I come now to a point upon which the abolitionists, and 
the Northern people universally, are more profoundly igno- 
rant than upon almost any other subject. This is the as- 
sumed greater dependence of the South, than any other sec- 
tion, upon the confederacy. Miss Martineau, in this matter, 
is the unreluctant mouth-piece of their crudities. Of course, 
the weakness of the South, in these relations, is due to slavery. 

" In case of war," says the good lady, "they might be only 
too happy if their sjaves did run away, instead of rising up 
against them at home." 

The wish is very much the father of the thought.* Per- 

* I slept, not long since, into one of the book shops of Broadway, 
and, in a new magazine lying upon the counter, read a letter from a 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 243 

haps there is nothing in the world that the people of the 
South less apprehend, than this, of the insurrection of their 
negroes. The attempts of this people at this object have been 
singularly infrequent, and perhaps never would be dreamed 
of, were their bad passions not appealed to by the abolitionists 
or their emissaries. They are not a warlike people ; are, in- 
deed, rather a timid race; have no concert, no system, and 
are too well content with their condition, to the great grief of 
such philosophers as Dr. Lardner, to desire any change. 
And this has been the case from the beginning. I must 
remind these reformers of a history which will scarcely add 
strength to their convictions. The slave population in Caro- 
lina was quite equal to its white population in 1776. That 
conflict was one which obviously held forth the best opportu- 
nities for an outbreak, had the slaves desired it. The British 
authorities were not unfriendly to any proceedings, on their 
part, which would have distressed their owners. They did 
encourage them to take up arms, and undertook to form se- 
parate bands of negro troops, to uniform them in their scarlet, 
and furnish them with arms ; yet succeeded in persuading 
only a single regiment to their ranks. The entire mass of 
the slave population adhered, with unshaken fidelity, to their 
masters — numbers followed or accompanied them to the field, 
and fought at their sides, while the greater body faithfully 
pursued their labors on the plantations — never deserting them 
in trial, danger or privation, and exhibiting, amidst every re- 
visitor in Charleston, who stated that, such was the apprehension en- 
tertained of slave insurrections, that all the houses are enclosed with 
brick or stone walls ! There are not half a dozen such walls in the 
city. The enclosures are mostly of wood, and such as a strong man 
would hew down with an axe in half a dozen strokes. But the absurd- 
becomes most intelligible, when it is remembered that the slaves of 
each household are lodgers within each enclosure. 



244 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

verse of fortune, that respect, that propriety of moral, which 
did nut presume in adversity, and took no license from the 
disorder of the times; and this decorum and fidelity were 
shown at a time when, to the presence of an overwhelmii g for- 
eign enemy, was added the greater curse of a reckle.-s and 
unsparing civil war, before their eyes, and among their own 
masters. Perhaps the whole world cannot exhibit a history 
more remarkable, or more worthy of grateful remembrance, 
than the conduct of the serviles of the South, during the war 
of the revolution. The few who were incorporated in the 
ranks of the British were of little service, behaved with no 
courage, and were soon dispersed or cut to pieces. Where 
they survived, they probably shared the fate of thousands 
more, whom the enemy found it much easier to convert into 
slaves, in the West Indies, than soldiers in the Carolinas. 
This history ought surely to suffice, to settle any doubts, 
or hopes, of our philanthropic brethren, in regard to our se- 
curities on this head. Of the remaining causes of Southern 
insecurity from foreign war, it is perhaps quite enough to 
state that the people of the South are born to the use of 
arms, and are fearless in the employment of them. They have 
never received any help from the North, at any period of their 
fortunes, either before or since the formation of the confederacy. 
They have, on the contrary, frequently sent their troops to the 
succor of the Northern States. In the recent war with Mexi- 
co, of the volunteers in the conquest of that country, under 
Taylor and Scott, their contribution, in proportion to that of 
the North, was as two to one. The people of the Southern 
States are emphatically a military people. The very fact that 
the tillage of the earth is confided mostly to an inferior race, 
affords them leisure for war, for constant exercise with wea- 
pons, and on horseback. The point, however, need not be 
pursued. Enough, that the people of the South are conscious 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 245 

of their strength, and entertain no sort of doubt of their 
capacity to maintain themselves equally against the danger 
from within and the foe without. 

I have now gone through most of the points, in these vol- 
umes, which, directly or indirectly, affect the moral and the 
fact, in the case of South-Carolina. I have confined myself 
mostly to the one State, as better prepared to speak as a wit- 
ness on the subject, and satisfied that the argument, in the 
case of one, will apply more or less thoroughly to that of all 
the slave States. It would have been quite easy to expose 
many other errors in these books, relating to the whole coun- 
try, the result of Miss Marti neau's self-conceit, her monomania, 
and her habit of generalizing from imperfect and inferior 
sources of fact ; but this sort of labor is not very grateful, 
and the game would be scarce worth the candle. I must 
leave the task to other pens, more able and ready, in the re- 
gions which she has wronged by her report I commend it to 
them. A book like that of this lady, who appears to think, 
and certainly labors to do so, after a fashion of her own, is 
the proper sort of work for dissection. She arrays before us 
all our alleged offences, and thus makes it easy to turn at once 
to page and chapter, when we would make up the issue with 
her. I had marked sundry little anecdotes which she gives 
us, which, true in themselves, are yet false, in consequence of 
her employment of them for the illustration of the truth in 
general. But, as they involve no principles likely to affect 
the question, and are so commonly in conflict with other mat- 
ters which the samp, pages develope, we may leave it to the 
reader to detect and contrast the examples for himself. They 
will do no harm, even if they escape all objection. Indeed, 
the book itself can do no harm. On the contrary, 1 am half 
disposed to think it may be of some benefit, if it brings us 
only to the knowledge of some of our errors. Like the spite- 
21* 



246 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

ful octavo of Mrs. Trollope, it tells us an occasional home 
troth, North and South, which we may ponder, and upon 
which we may improve. And yet there may be some unkind- 
ness, in requiring the reader to toil through this weary wilder- 
ness of chaff, in the hope of such small wheat as it promises. 
Miss Martineau is a monstrous prose*. She has a terrible 
power of words, and is tyrannical as she is powerful, in the 
use of them. We have no doubt she is herself free from 
stain or reproach ; but her tongue is wretchedly incontinent. 
She is probably one of those persons who never believe that 
they have been talking all the while. She declaims constant- 
ly, and is forever searching after exceptions. She scruples at 
no game, fears no opponent, and, whether the meat be washed 
or unwashed, hawk or heron, it is all the same to her. She 
discusses the rights of man, and — heaven save the mark ! — 
the rights of women too, with her chambermaid, when she 
cannot corner a senator. Smart exceedingly, well practised 
in the minor economies of society, and having at her tongue's 
end all the standards of value in the grain, cotton, beef and 
butter markets, she does not scruple to apply them to the 
more mysterious involutions of the mind and society. It is 
but too evident that, with all her cleverness, she lacks that 
more advantageous wisdom which begins with humility. She 
is too dogmatical ever to be wise. She comes to teach, not 
to learn. She gets nothing from her hearer, for she does not 
hear him. If she listens, it is simply because she is confident 
that her answer is ready. That she has never listened, while 
in America, is evident from these volumes ; though I doubt 
not that a great many words have gone through her trumpet. 
Miss Martineau came to America with two or three texts in 
her memory, which she assumed to be the only right stand- 
ards by which our people were to be tried and their institu- 
tions judged. These texts are so many broad and bold as- 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 247 

sumptions, that have obtained currency, rather in consequence 
of the audacity by which they have been urged, and perhaps 
by some latent vitality, the result of partial truth within 
them, than because of their complete and triumphant endu- 
rance of the tests of experience and severe analysis. With 
her, as with most European philosophers of her order, they 
are assumptions only — specious or imposing — which have 
been taken on trust ; according, perhaps, with the particular 
temperament of the individual. To a woman of the bold, 
free, masculine nature of Miss Martineau, impatient of the 
restraints of her sex, and compelled to seek her distinction in 
fields which women are rarely permitted to penetrate, demo- 
cracy is one of the most attractive of social philosophies, as 
conservatism must be necessarily the most offensive. With 
her, the doctrine of majorities is the voice of God. She has 
a fast faith in the proverb. The will of the majority, she in- 
sists, will be right — right, always, in the end — a faith which 
we should not care to dispute, since we can readily conceive 
of a people, after having boxed the compass in experiments, 
and bruised its shins, or broken its limbs, over a thousand 
errors, arriving, at last, at the goal which it had never conjec- 
tured, and had not the capacity to seek or to foresee. Let 
" the end'' 1 be sufficiently remote, and we hardly question but 
that, in God's mercy, all his scattered flocks will find their 
way into the saving fold. But need this be a matter of 
chance, and need there be any such long delay about it? 
May not the thousand sorrows, trials, hurts and bruises of the 
race be lessened, and the road to right be shorten id, under 
other auspices ? Are not the delay and the suffering the 
strict consequence of following such blind guides as our own 
capricious passions, headlong will, fierce impulse, and impu- 
dent presumption — following the multitude, in short, to do 
evil ; and has not God appointed safer guides, specially gifted 



248 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

beings, whom we were wiser to seek and follow, and who 
would conduct as to the great object of our pilgrimage, at no 
such peri), and with no such delay a* now attends the progress! 
I confess that, though not unwilling to suppose the majority 
may be right in the end, I am half disposed to prefer a mi- 
nority that is right in the beginning. But that would not 
suit Miss Martineau, who prefers to work out her own pro- 
blems, at any cost, so that she can do the work for herself. 
Sli<- tak.'s this doctrine of majorities lovingly in band, and, 
applying it to sundry cases in her own mind — to which it is 
not customary to apply it in America — she is alarmed at the 
annoying inconsistency which follow-. Hence her wild chap- 
ter about the u Rights of Women,* 5 her groans and invectives 
because of their exclusion from the offices of state, the right 
of suffrage, the exercise of political authority. In all this, 
tin- error of the declaimer consists in the very first movement 
of the mind. "The "Rights of Women" may all bo con- 
ceded to tie- sex. wt tin- rights of nun withheld from them. 
Here is all the difficulty. The knot of the Bubject lies in this 
little respect ; and tin- untying of it, by no A'exandrine pro- 
cess — we had almost said Caesarian— may enable us still to 
insist upon our American understanding of the doctrine of 
majorities, yet Ka\e the tender sex without any legitimate 
cause of complaint. Certainly, if mere numbers are to be 
considered the proper sources of power in a state, the infe- 
rence follows that women must have a share in the adminis- 
tration of affairs. The fact that they are not, in a country 
which yet professes to be ruled by a majority, should h-»ve 
prompted Miss Martineau to a closer inquiry into the source 
of the peculiar lights of the majority. It is important to 
know what was the peculiar sense, on this subject, of the 
founders of our laws, customs, and constitution. We are in 
possession of a good many very subtle and ingenious exposi- 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 249 

tions of the secret principle by which the larger claims to rule 
the smaller body. But I doubt the whole of them, and am 
not sure that the whole moral of it is not an agreeable political 
fiction, by which to save trouble, avoid difficulty, escape dan- 
ger, and have leisure for more personal matters ; just as the 
elevation of a pretty young woman to the throne of England, 
following the prescribed order of events, prevents a constant 
recurrence of struggles, ending in bloody wars, with regard 
to the disputed succession. There must be, for the general 
safety, some rule on these subjects, of general recognition, and 
this of the majority is most in accordance with the genius, as it 
is the preference, of the people. There may be found a sub- 
stantial reason for it at bottom, which may be suggestive 
to Miss Marti neau why women are not to be taken into the 
account. The truth is, the doctrine of majorities simply de- 
termines the presence of physical power, displayed by simple 
arithmetic, by which we obviate any necessity for the applica- 
tion of the brute force, when we assert our rights, and seek 
their exercise by swaying over the rights of others. The 
majority tells us where the brute force lies, and we submit to 
it, with what philosophy we can, in all cases where the au- 
thority which governs, entails upon us no such evils as would 
follow from our physical struggle to shake it off. Whenever 
the wrongs and injustice of the majority pass beyond the 
ordinary bounds of patience, it is resisted, and the ultima 
ratio is resorted to by the minority, either in hope or despe- 
ration. There is no abstract charm, in mere numbers, to 
compel the submission of those who are wronged, or who 
think themselves so. But when it is known that votes repre- 
sent men — able-bodied and armed men — the case is different. 
We at once see the enemy with which we have to contend, 
and the superior capacities which he possesses of coercion. 
The doctrine of majorities is, in truth, no new doctrine. It 



250 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

is as old as the hills. The only difference between times past 
and times present, consists, simply, in the superior facilities 
which, in modern times, we enjoy, of determining where the 
power lies, without any resort to blows. It is more easy, 
now-a-days, to compute the strength of the opposition, than 
it was in the distant periods when war was almost invariably 
the result of ignorance on both hands ; and never was the 
doctrine more clearly illustrated than in the wars of Napoleon 
Bonaparte, whose many successes were the sheer result of his 
attention to this fact. His mode of concentrating his force 
at a given point, in advance of his enemy, was the true secret 
of his wonderful victories. Like all dexterous politicians, his 
aim was to be always in a majority. Minorities would never 
submit to the frequent injustice of majorities, but that they 
well know that the court of dernier resort is one just as little 
likely to give them redress, as the power which robs them of 
their rights by a mere resort to the numeration table. 

It is only one of many of the subjects of disquiet which 
Miss Marti neau rinds, when she compares the ivork'uiy of our 
system with its prescribed standards. The governing princi- 
ples of our political condition, and the laws and practice un- 
der them, she finds in frequent conflict; and her trouble is 
that of the European generally. One of her points of diffi- 
culty is in the famous passage in the declaration of American 
independence, which announces that "all men are created 
equal." The declaration has been one of long dispute, with 
all sorts of philosophers, and the decision upon the vexed 
question is not likely to be made in our day. Our excellent 
forefathers, when they pronounced this truth to be self-evident, 
were not in the best mood to become philosophers, however 
well calculated to approve themselves the best of patriots. 
They were much excited, nay, rather angry, in the days of 
the u declaration," and hence it is that what they alleged to 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 251 

be self evident then, is, at this time, when we are compara- 
tively cool, a source of very great doubt and disputation. 
But, the truth is, the phrase was simply a finely sounding 
one, significant of that sentimental French philosophy, then 
so current, which was destined to bear such sanguinary fruits 
in after periods. Jefferson inclined to that school of philoso- 
phers, so long as its sentimentality constituted its chief cha- 
racteristic, and before the paradisaical fancies of which it was 
so prolific had been literally swallowed up. in a sea of human 
blood. How could Rousseau, or Jefferson, determine how 
men were created— in what degrees— in what equality ? The 
only record which we have, shows us, under the ordinary in- 
terpretation of the churchmen, that there was never but a 
single man created by the hands of God ; the rest were born, 
under laws such as prevail uniformly through the animal v 
world— in different climates, different realms, under different 
conditions, victims to poverty, to exposure, to want, to dis- 
ease, or pets of vanity, and pride, and opulence— all differing, 
everywhere, in health, strength, size, circumstance — under no 
uniformity of culture, training, education ; — ^unequal a scat- 
tered family — color, race, tribe, feature — as if it had been the 
studious purpose of the Deity that there should be as great a 
variety in the human family, as among the brute and vegeta- 
ble nations. And I have no doubt that such really was his 
plan, conforming to all the analogies in nature. But the 
statement of the case, as made in the " declaration of inde- 
pendence," is, in its very nature, wholly indeterminable. No- 
body, now-a-days, is born naked. Indeed, man was hardly 
ever, at any period, in what we describe as a state of nature. 
The artifices of a social condition were woven about him from 
the earliest periods, and the essential inequalities of such 
conditions, in differing societies, must always have had the 
effect of establishing corresponding inequalities among the 



252 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

individuals composing tribes and families, even if it had not 
been the benevolent purpose of God that such inequalities 
should constitute an essential feature of his plan of creation. 
But, be sure that our good fathers, in the revolution, never 
contemplated so wide a survey of the subject, when they in- 
sisted upon the perfect equality of the sons of men. They 
made the assertion in a more limited sense, evidently think- 
ing not so much of the accouchement of Eve, as of the de- 
livery of the American people. Their assertion meant no 
more than this: "You, George the Third, whom we think a 
tyrant, have presumed to call us, John Hancock, Samuel 
Adams, Thomas Jefferson, etc., traitors and rebels. Now, 
look you, George, we owe you no allegiance. We are as 
good men as you, any day. We are your equals. God 
created, or made, us so. Stand up and compare with us, if 
you dare. Compare with us your best men — your Norths, 
and Butes, and Germaines — and let us see where your supe- 
riority lies. Physically, we are fully your match ; morally 
and intellectually, your superiors. And so will our people 
compare with yours, and with the whole world. God has 
endowed them, equally with your people, with the capacity to 
govern and control themselves." And this was the amount 
ot it, and such was the argument, as against a rival people. 
Within their own tribes, they no doubt held the farther doc- 
trine, that all men were equal in the sight of God — that is, 
that he was incapable of partialities. He had made them 
equally his care — he had decreed their equal accountability ; 
and, by proper analogy, the authors of the declaration might 
well declare, in behalf of the equal recognition, by the laws 
and government, of the claims of the citizen, each in his 
place ; each, while he obeyed the laws and complied with 
his public duties, having an equal right with his neighbor to 
the protection of society, in his life and liberty, his pursuits 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 253 

and his possessions. We are not to subject such a perform- 
ance as the declaration of independence to a too critical scru- 
tiny, in respect to its generalizations. These are put briefly, 
and the circumstances of the revolutionary movement were 
such as required that they should be put strongly. It was 
necessary that they should be pronounced with emphasis 
since the revolution was an event which, while it fixed the 
attention of the civilized world, required that it should also 
compel its popular sympathies. It was, perhaps, something 
of policy that dictated the employment of phrases which 
should particularly commend it to the French philosophers of 
that day ; and I have no question but that many of the 
statesmen who signed the paper were thus made the endorsers 
of sundry sentiments which they never swallowed at all. The 
Adamses, of Massachusetts, could not well have bolted the 
doctrine of universal equality ; while it is very certain that 
the aristocrats of Carolina, in that day, must, if they did 
swallow it, have done so with monstrous wry faces. But the 
doubtful matter did not then provoke a question, since no- 
body gave it, then, any construction more authoritative than 
that which I have here assigned it. 

How should they, indeed, unless blinder than the beasts 
that perish, with staring proofs to the contrary surrounding 
them, even while they deliberated and wrote ? That God 
has not created men alike, or equal, whether morally or physi- 
cally, is not less notorious, than it is in perfect harmony with 
all his other creations. The most striking development, every 
where, in and about the beautiful world which we inhabit, is 
in striking proof of his purpose to crown it with as much 
diversity as life. Nothing, indeed, can be more remarkable, 
or more delightful, to the mind and eye, surveying the works 
of the Creator, than the endless varieties, and the boundless 
22 



254 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

inequalities, of his creations. Not only is no void unfilled, 
but no void is filled in the same manner. Size, form, color, 
order, power, in ail living objects, are graduated endowments, 
■which enable one to fly, while another creeps ; one to dilate 
in grandeur, while another trembles in insignificance ; one to 
loom out, like some bright creature of the elements, white 
another nestles, with sombre garment, in a corresponding 
shadow. Whether we survey the globe which we inhabit, the 
sky which canopies, the seas which surround us, or the sys- 
tems which give us light and loveliness, we are perpetually 
called upon to admire that infinite variety of the Creator, 
which nothing seems to stale. The stars are lovely in their 
inequalities; the hills, the trees, the rivers and the seas; and 
it is from their very inequalities that their harmonics arise. 
"Were it otherwise, the eye would be pained by the monotony 
of the prospect ever}' where. As it is, we love to look abroad 
upon nature, and it is with a pleasure no less sensible than 
that of the savage, that we learn " how to name the bigger 
light, and how the less." They have their names, only as 
they are unlike and unequal. It is because these shine in 
their places, however inferior to other orbs, that they are 
lovely. They are all unequal, but each keeps its place; and 
the beauty which they possess and yield us, results entirely 
from their doing so. A greater philosopher than Thomas 
Jefferson — and we may add, after a long interval, Jeremy 
Bentham and Miss Maitineau — has given us a noble passage, 
devoted to this subject, which is no less philosophical than 
poetical — indeed, it is the true poet, alone, who is the perfect 
and universal philosopher. Let us hear William Shakspeare. 
I quote from "Troilus and Cressida." The speech is made 
by U.ysses, at the close of the seventh year of the siege of 
Troy, when the Greeks, emulous of each other, each striving 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 255 

for sway, defeat their own objects, and begin to despair of suc- 
cess in the continued disappointments of the war. After a 
prefatory passage, he says : 

" Degree being vizarded, 
The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask. 
The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre, 
Observe degree, priority and place, 
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, 
Office and custom, in all line of order: 
And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol, 
In noble eminence enthroned and sphered 
Amidst the other, whose med'cinable eye 
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil, 
And po<ts, iike the commandment of a king, 
Sans check, to good and bad : But when the planets, 
In evil mixture, to d-sorder wander, 
What plaques, and what portents ! What mutiny i 
What raging of the sea ! shaking of earth ! 
Commotion in the winds ! — frights, changes, horrors, 
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate 
The unity and married calm of states* 
Quite from their fixture! Oh, when degree is shak'd, 
Which is the ladder of all high designs, 
The enterprise is sick ! How could communities, 
Degiees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities, 
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, 
_The piimogenitive and due of birth, 
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, 
But by degree, stand in authentic place ? 
Take but degree away, untune that string, 
And hark ! what discord follows ! Each thing meets 
In mere oppugnancy : The bounded waters 
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores, 
And make a sop of ail this sulid globe; 

* Were our federal union what it should be, how happily would 
this line servo as the motto of the confederacy. 



256 THE MORALS OP SLAVERY. 

Strength should be lord of imbecility, 

And the rude son should strike his father dead ; 

Force should be right ; or, rather, right and wrong 

(Between whose endless jars justice resides) 

Should lose their names, and so should justice too. 

Then everything includes itself in power, 

Power into will, will into appethe ; 

And appetite, an universal wolf, 

So doubly seconded by will and power, 

Must make, perforce, an universal prey, 

And last, eat up himself. Great Agamemnon, 

This chaos, when deg-ree is suffocate, 

Follows the choking."* 

* Pope, too, not to speak of a hundred others, has like authority. 
* Order is heaven's first law, and this eon lest, 
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest." 
The laws of society are not intended to disturb the natural degrees of 
humanity, but to reconcile them — to make them consistent with, and 
dependent upon, one another — not to make the butcher a judge, or the 
baker a president ; but to protect them, according to their claims as 
butcher and baker. Let us illustrate these distinctions by some well 
known eases. In a claim for maintenance, the jury will inquire what 
have been the habits, what is the education, the tastes, sensibilities, etc, 
of the wife — in an action for damages, in slander, the words being the 
same, the jury will adjudge the amount of damages according to the 
profession, the moral and intellectual standing, of ihe slandered person ; 
and this, too, without reflecting that it is wholly in defiance of this 
doctrine of universal equality. Yet the trial by jury is, perhaps, even 
beyond that of representation — nay, it is the most vital sort of repre- 
sentation — the most conspicuous showing of the equal rights princi- 
ple. The jury, drawn from all classes, recognizes, as by an instinct, 
what is due to superior social position, and, just in degree as the cha- 
racter is eminent, which they have to redress, will make exemplary 
the damages. Here is the whole subject. If we thu-; guage the degree 
of wrong done to the individual, as an individual, and accord. ng to his 
special claims, it is because we have first recognized the individual 
superiority of his rights. 






THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 25 7 

This noble passage is full of force and meaning. It does 
not too highly rate, to society, the importance of order — de- 
gree — or men, as well as things, in their right places. All S 
harmonies, whether in the moral or physical worlds, arise 
wholly from the inequality of their tones and aspects ; and all 
things, whether in art or nature, social or political systems, 
but for this inequality, would give forth only monotony or 
discord. That equality which the leveller insists upon would 
result in general confusion — the breaking down of every 
necessary barrier of distinction — the universal forfeiture of 
names to things. There could be no hope, there would be 
no ambition, where 

" Degree, being vizarded, 
The unworthiest shows as fairly " 

as the noblest. The motive to honorable performance would 
be lost ; and that, too, without lessening, in any degree, the 
scramble, on all hands, for place and power. The very na- 
ture of man is in conflict with this law of universal equality. 
His perpetual, and proper effort, is to rise honorably above 
his fellows. It is thus, and thus only, that he asserts an in- 
dividuality of character and endowment, which is the secret 
of all greatness, whether of possession or performance. It 
was never the intention of the fathers of the country to de- 
stroy this individuality, to deny its assertion, or to bring about 
that dead level condition in society, in which everything but 
stagnates. They may have been democrats; but in their 
notion of democracy, it was not levelling in its character. 
They rather found in it that harmory of relation in the mo- 
ral world, in which all the agents and operatives, playing 
together, wrought out from their correspondence the best 
music of humanity — that music which builds the great city, 
and secures peace and prosperity to man, in the prosecution 
22* 



258 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

of his labors. The democracy which tbey asserted not only 
recognized, but insisted npon inequalities — its laws declaring 

nut the fitness of all nnn for any place, but that all should 
be secured in the- quiet possession of their individual right of 

place — that there should be no usurpation — no assertion of 
power, in hostility to right — no arrogant assumption, upon 
artificial bases, of any natural right of one class of perform- 
ers to the sway over another. Neither their acts nor their 
declarations, properly read and understood, asserted anything 
beyond the simple and reasonable law, that each man should 
enjoy the place to which he is justly entitled, by reason of 
hi- moral, his intellect, his strength, or his resource. Of the 
thing or position proper to him, that should lie enjoy without 
molestation. Their understanding, and, as I read it, their 
definition of true liberty, is the enjoyment of that place in 
society to which our moral and intellect entitle us, and of the 
fruits of those efforts and enterprises, which we owe to our 
own performances, lien-, I may offer a few brief definitions, 
the better to convey my notion of what was theirs. 

He is in the enjoyment of freedom, whatever his condition, 
who is suffered to occupy his ptroper place. 

He, only, is the slave, who is forced into a position in so- 
ciety which is below the claim of his intellect and moral. 

He cannot but be a tyrant — a wrong-doer at least — who 
forces or makes his way into a position for which his moral 
is unfitted or unprepared, and for the duties of which his 
intellect is unprepared. 

That such were the definitions of democracy, in the days 
of the declaration, is fairly inferrible from the tact, that they 
left the condition of their social world precisely as they found 
it. They might, indeed, have held, as an abstract notion, 
that, in a state of nature, men were born equal — equally 
helpless, of themselves, certainly, and equally dependant and 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 25 3 

incapable — but they certainly never held that they must of 
right continue equal ; nor is this a fair conclusion, from what 
they say. The birthright of man maybe alienated in a thou- 
sand ways, and it never was an unqualified one. 

Of these inalienable rights of man, 

" All men," says the declaration of independence, " are 
created equal ; they are endowed by their Creator with cer- 
tain inalienable rights ; among these are life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness," etc. 

Now, is this true, in whole or in part? Is it true that life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are inalienable, under 
the practice of our government, or any other ? Do we not 
alienate them every day ? Men are hung for rapes, for trea- 
son, for murder, for forgery, for burglary, and many other 
offences. We cast them into prisons, and deprive them of 
their liberty ; we sue them in the courts, and take from them 
their property. On what pretence, if these rights of man be 
inalienable, do we deprive him of them ? There is some 
mystery in all this, not to be explained by a resort to the 
ordinary mode of argumentation ; and those who insist, as 
Miss Martineau does, upon the unlimited and the unqualified 
meaning of these natural laws — for natural rights are natural 
laws — will certainly be at a loss to reconcile a difficulty like 
this. In fact, these are only conditional possessions or en- 
dowments. We must look farther. There must be a quali- 
fied acceptation of these principles and phrases, or they are 
nothing. The truth is, that oui natural rights depend en- ^-s 
tirely upon the degree of obedience which we pay to the faivs 
of our creation. All our rights, whether from nature or from 
society — and these are the only two sources of right known 
to us — result from the performance of our duties. Unless 
we perform our duties, we have no rights ; or they are aliena- 
ble, in consequence of our lachesse. The man has no rights 



260 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

by nature, unless by a compliance with the laws of nature; 
as he would have no rights from society, unless by a com- 
pliance with its laws. Refusing to obey, he is outlawed, and 
society thus only recognizes, instinctively, the remorseless de- 
cree of nature. These laws, in a state of nature, require 
from the man the application of his mental and physical 
energies, to the improvement of the passive world around him. 
It was given to him for this single purpose. The Indian, who 
finds himself upon a hillock, has no more right to it, by na- 
ture, than the hog which burrows along its borders, until he 
proves his right by the exhibition of faculties superior to 
those which the hog possesses. lie is no more a man than 
the hog, until he complies with the natural laws of his being. 
This he does, when he builds himself a cabin from the woods 
around him ; when he bends the branches into a bower over- 
head, and covers the roof with leaves, and strews the floor 
with rushes, and thus protects himself against the elements ; 
when he gathers fuel, and, by rubbing two dried sticks to- 
gether, builds himself a fire, and warms himself against the 
cold ; when he plants his maize and beans, and provides 
against future hunger. These prove his superiority to the 
brute, and maintain for him the proper rights which his 
superior powers have fairly established to be in him. He 
literally obeys the first decree of God to the expatriated man, 
and, by tilling the earth, obtains his bread in the sweat of 
his brow.* As he proceeds, Labor, which, alone, is but a 
blind Polyphemus at the best, receives a divine assistant from 
heaven, in the shape of Art. She gives life and animation 
to his toils, cheers him with her smiles and her songs, and, 

* And this is one of the first elements of religion, as it is the prime 
element of human prosperity. Genesis is studied in vain, unless this 
be the conclusion of the student. 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 261 

when his work is ended, with a plastic hand, smoothes down 
its roughnesses, and, from the rude block, commands the 
upspringing presence of Beauty. In the progress of time, 
Nature supplies him, from his own resources, with another 
ally, of whom he had no previous knowledge, in the shape of 
Science. This ally is many-winged and many-handed, and 
makes all the elements subservient to his purposes. lie shows 
labor where to place his shoulder, and the mountain is heaved 
from its base. He tells where he shall strike, and the crag is 
cleft by his stroke. He hews down the high trees of the 
forest at his bidding, and guides his dwelling-place even upon 
the waters. These gifts prepare man properly for life. The 
crowning and last gift, which is spiritual religion, prepares him 
for death. But the inevitable law must be first obeyed, or he 
gains none of these blessings. He must first labor. This is 
the destiny from which he is forever seeking to escape.* It 
is only by a compliance with this, the first law of his creation, 
that he can hope to be secure in life, successful in his pursuits, 
benefitted by society, and made happy by religion. It is the 
key-stone of religion itself; and the missionary who seeks to 
teach the mysteries of Christianity to the wandering savage, 
can never hope to be successful, so long as he neglects to in- 
form him of the first duty consequent upon his creation. 

* The desire to escape this destiny is one of the true causes of the 
present distress of our country. We are all toiling to avoid loil ; and 
we coorjie, swindle, speculate — do anything but delve and dig. We 
import our labor— the most useful and necessary arm of our population — 
from a foreign country ; and a long train of evils must ensue in conse- 
quence, which the narrow mind will always be unwilling 10 trace back 
to this seemingly unimportant origin. It is a moral disgrace to a nation 
such as ours, not less than a political and social evil, when we are com- 
pelled to import from foreign lands our grain, our bread stuffs, and the 
forage for our cattle. Land was given us for cultivation ; not for spe- 
culation. — Note written in 1837. 



262 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

The result of labor, to the man, is property. The posses- 
sion of property is the first cause which brings about any 
enlarged formation of society : numbers become necessary to 
defend wealth from the barbarians, who do not labor, and who 
have none. As society improves and increases — and it must 
inevitably do so, while it continues to comply with its natural 
and obvious laws — it extends its dominion, and controls the 
surrounding tribes, for its own safety. These succumb, are 
enslaved, and, as they improve in intellectual respects, are 
lifted, by regular degrees, into the bosom of that society 
which has first enslaved them.* The superior people, which 
conquers, also educates the inferior; and their reward, for 
this good service, is derived from the labor of the latter, 
which b.iiig, in all moral respects, the inferior people, can 
yield no other recompense. Unless the civilized and superior 
nation does this, it will inevitably fall a victim to the barba- 
rous tribes which gather around it — forever poor, desperate 
and daring — having no possessions to lose, and, from their 
bestial improvidence, compelled, in all inclement seasons, to 
resort to war with their neighbors, to avoid starvation. It is 
no less the duty than the necessity, therefore, of civilization, 
to overcome these tribes — to force the tasks of life upon 
them — to compel their labor — to teach them the arts of eco- 
nomy and providence, and, with a guiding hand and unyield- 
ing sway, conduct them to the moral Pisgah, from whence 
they may behold the lovely and inviting Canaan of a higher 
and holier condition, spread out before them, and praying 
them to come. When civilization ceases to extend her con- 

* This is a natural, and therefore an inevitable result. Without refer- 
ring to the moral law to this effect, the Southern slaveholder finds it 
his interest to lift the nioie intelligent slave into stations of higher re- 
bponsibil.ty, and more honorable trust, than are commonly yielded to 
his fellows. 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 263 

quest?, she falls, like Rome, the victim to the savage. The 
■war is as endless between her and her foe, as between any 
two diametrically opposite principles in the same moral cir- 
cle ; and as her sway is the more gentle, and as she conquers 
only to improve, while the savage conquers only to destroy, 
it follows, inevitably, that hers is the only legitimate conquest, 
and every other is but tyranny. 

Every primitive nation, of which we have any knowledge / 
in the world's history, has been subjected to long periods of V 
bondage. They have been all elevated and improved by its 
tasks and labors, and a positive sanction for the use of slavery, 
and a proof of its necessity, are fairly to be inferred from this 
inevitable consequence ; but, as if this were not enough for 
the purposes of authority, God himself, we are given to under- 
stand, actually, in two remarkable instances, placed a favorite 
people in foreign slavery, making them hewers of wood and 
drawers of water, in the land of the stranger ; as, from their 
refusal to comply with the laws of their creation, they had 
shown themselves unfitted even for the very comparative de- 
gree of social liberty allotted to men at those periods — requi- 
ring them thus, through that ordeal, which is improperly 
called slavery, but which is simply a process of preparation 
for an improving and improved condition, to work out their 
own moral deliverance. For, truly is it, that we shall not 
only gain our bread by the sweat of our brow, but thus sub- 
due those barbarous appetites, and degrading brutal propen- 
sities, without the subjection of which, our minds could never 
have that due play and exercise, which can alone fit them for 
social dependance, and the friendly restraints of a guardian 
government. The nature of man is one of continual conflicts, 
and those chiefly with himself; and the proverb which incul- 
cates the victory over himself as the most glorious of all vic- 
tories, is one strictly and philosophically growing out of a 



264 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

just knowledge of his own attributes, and the difficulties which 
oppose their exercise. 

Our general views, in modern times, on the subject of slaves 
and slavery, are distressingly narrow. Our forefathers were 
less precipitate, but more certain in their philosophy. They 
did not scruple to go forward, but they were first sure that 
they were right in doing so. We do not resemble them in 
this. We are too ready to follow multitudes to do evil. 
Having commenced our political career by a grand innovation 
upon the existing condition of things, we would still innovate ; 
and, like any other good principle suffering abuse, the zeal 
which released us from a foreign yoke would also release us 
from our allegiance to higher influences than kings. We are 
losing our veneration fast. We are overthrowing all sacred 
and hallowing associations and authorities. Marriage is now 
a bond which we may rend at pleasure. The Sabbath is a 
wrong and a superstition. Such is the progress of opinion and 
doctrine among those very classes which show themselves hos- 
tile to Southern slavery. The cry is " On !" and we do not 
see the beginning of the end. Never was fanaticism more 
mad thao on the subject of slavery ; which was a very good 
thing enough when "England and the North " sold slaves, 
and the South bought them ; and it is a good thing now, if 
we would only reason rightly, and find out what slavery is. 
We make no distinction between those restraints which im- 
pose labor upon the body — improving its health, bringing out 
its symmetry and strength, and fulfilling a destiny, which the 
analogies of all history, not less than the faith which we pro- 
fess, teach us is the decree of the Universal Parent — and 
that bondage of the mind, and that denial of its exercise, 
which are always the aim of tyrannies, and which, as in the 
case of some of the unlaborinij people of Europe, must result 
in the utter enervation, sluggishness, and shame of body and 



TOE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 265 

mind alike. Pity it is, that the lousy and lounging lazzaroni 
of Italy, cannot be made to labor in the fields, under the 
whip of a severe task-master ! They would then be a much 
freer — certainly a much nobler animal — than we can possibly 
esteem them now ; — and far better had it been for our native 
North American savage, could he have been reduced to ser- 
vitude, and, by a labor imposed upon him, within his strength, 
md moderately accommodated to his habits, have been pre- 
.t painful and eating decay, which has left but 
id skeleton of what was once a numerous and 
— a people, that needed nothing but an Egyp- 
of four hundred years to have been saved for 
the future, and lifted into a greatness to which Grecian and 
Roman celebrity might have been a faint and failing music* 
This clamor about liberty and slavery, is, after all, unless 
"we get some certain definitions to begin with, the most arrant 
nonsense. " License they mean when they cry liberty !" — and 
we may add, " license they mean when they cry slavery !" 
The extremes are near kindred, and in all these clamors they 
are sure to meet. The Russian boor is called a slave, and 

* I will be referred to the experiment of this nature, made by the 
Spaniards in the Island of Cuba, in which the poor savages were 
utterly destroyed. But this is no parallel case to the proposition in 
the text. The reason why the Spaniards failed, and the Indians 
perished under the repartimiento system, arose from the fact, that the 
masters had only a temporary and not & permanent interest in their 
services. The Spanish governors were compelled to arrive at sudden 
wealth, or not at all ; and they worked the savages to death in order 
to obtain it. Had the Indians been allotted to them, not according 
to geographical, but numerical divisions, such result would not have 
followed. They should have had a limited number of slaves, and in 
these they should have had a life interest. Their policy, then, must 
have been to economize that labor, of which, under the existing cir- 
cumstances, they were inhumanly profligate. The late of the Indians, 
under such rule, might have been predicted. 
23 



266 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

the German subject of Austria is called a slave, and the 
Italian is called a slave, and the negro in the Southern States 
is called a slave, — and yet, how unlike to one another is the 
condition of all these slaves! The right of ruling themselves, 
at pleasure, is that which is assumed to be the test of free- 
dom. The native African has that right, and what is the 
rule of Africa ? A sufficient commentary upon it will be 
found in the naked, unmarked outlines, hanging upon the 
walls of our houses, and dignified with the title of maps of 
Africa. Murder awaits the missionary and the traveller . 
penetrate the country; and chilization seems to be as far 
remote as ever from their attainment. And how should it be 
otherwise ? And how should they improve, having never 
taken the first step in such a progress ? They cannot im- 
prove until they learn to labor, — they will not learn to labor 
until they become stationary ; and the wandering savage has 
seldom yet become stationary, miK ss by the coercion of a 
superior people.* But the right to govern themselves re- 
quires, first, a capacity for Buch government. The right can 
only result from a compliance with the laws of their creation ; 
and the capacity requires long ages of preparation, of great 
trial, hardship, severe labor and perilous enterprise. The 
responsibilities and the duties of self-government, demand a 
wonderful and wide-spread knowledge and practice of morals, 

* For the sake of the African world, it id to be regretted that, 
instead of abolishing the slave trade, the nations had not contented 
themselves with regulating it. Vessels should have been licensed for 
the trade, of particular burden and construction, and carrying limited 
numbers ; by which means the disgusting and dreadful horrors which 
resulted f/ora the compression of the unhappy captives, in great num- 
bers, into foetid and narrow dungeons, would have been avoided, with 
all of the evils consequent upon their change of condition ; leaving 
them only to the thousand benefits, which make the American slave 
so superior an animal to the African freemen. 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 267 

before such a capacity can arise ; and it would be an awkward 

and difficult inquiry at this moment to discover any one of 

the leading nations of the globe where such a capacity exists. 

I will not even believe it to exist in the United States, until 

I see the people willing to tax themselves directly for their own 

protection. I will not believe it, so long as they need to be 

drcci ' Hrect and circuitous taxation, into the expendi- 

necessary for their own good. They are not 

ok in the face the cost of their own liberties. 

the English government denies the existence 

j such capacity among its people ;* and France! — what 

* Great Britain has freed her slaves, yet denies equality to a large 
portion of her own people — yea, denies them equal liberties of con- 
science But how has she freed the blacks ? If they had an unquali- 
fied right of freedom, by what right has she limited iheir freedom, 
in making them apprentices for a term of years? Their rights, if 
absolute, demanded, on her part, an absolute release of them. While 
I write, I am reminded of a paragraph in the Table Talk of Cole- 
ridge. It is kindred to our notions, and we give it accordingly. He 
says • " You are always talking of the rights of the negroes. As a 
rhetorical mode of stimulating the people of England here, 1 do not 
object; but I utterly condemn your frantic praciice of declaiming 
about their rights to the blacks themselves. They ought to be forci- 
bly reminded of the state in which their brethren in Africa still are, 
and taught to be thankful for the providence which lias placed them 
within the means of grace. I know no right except such as flows from 
righteousness ; and as every Christian believes his righteousness to be 
imputed, so must his right be an imputed right too. It must flow out 
of a duty, and it is under that name that the process of humanization 
ought to begin and to be conducted throughout." In another para- 
graph, devoted more distinctly to the proceedings of the British par- 
liament, Mr. Coleridge speaks thus: "Have you been able to dis- 
cover any principle in this emancipation biil for the slaves, except a 
principle of fear of the abolition party struggling with a fear of caus- 
ing some monstrous calamity to the empire at large ? Well ! I will 
not prophesy ; and God grant that this tremendous and unprecedented 
act of positive enactment may not do the harm to the cause of human- 
ity and freedom which I cannot but fear I" 



268 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

have all her bloody days, through successive ages, effected 
for her liberties, but cries fur more blood, an increasing dis- 
content, and the fever and phrensy which continually defy 
and defeat her own laws, in the appetite which calls for 
fresher uproar? Perhaps, the very homogeneousness of a 
people is adverse to the most wholesome forms of liberty. It 
may make of a selfish people (which has succeeded by the 
aid of other nations in the attainment of a certain degree of 
moral enlargement) a successful people — in the merely world- 
ly sense of the word — but it can never make them, moral'. ;, 
a great one.* For that most perfect form of liberty, which 
prompts us to love justice for its own sake, it requires strange 
admixtures of differing races — the combination and compari- 
son of the knowledge which each has separately arrived at — 
the long trials and conflicts which precede their coming to- 
gether ; and their perfect union in the end, after that subjec- 
tion on the part of the inferior class, which compels them to 
a knowledge of what is possessed by the superior. This was 
the history of the Saxon boors under the Norman conquest — 
a combination, which has resulted in the production of one of 
the most perfect specimens of physical organization and moral 
susceptibilities, which the world has ever known. And where 
this amalgamation cannot be effected — as in the case of the 
Israelites — who are too homogeneous for commixture or even 
communion with other people, — the slave, in the progress of 

* The moment that a people boasts of its homogeneousness, we 
may begin to doubt its farther improvement, particularly if the com- 
munity be a small one. The homogeneousness of the Jews is, proba- 
bly, the true reason of their national inferiority. They are a people, 
without a nation. All insulated communities degenerate ; until, in 
time, they cease even to have issue. The intermarriages of islanders, 
villagers, and other homogeneous people, should be forbidden by 
law ; and so should the intermarriages among cousins. Perhaps, it 
would be well, if our men in America always chose their wives from 
other States and sections than their own. 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 269 

events, acquires the knowledge of the master. When Moses 
could emulate the Egyptian priesthood, he was able to em- 
body and to represent his people, and to lead them forth from 
bondage; for then they had acquired all the knowledge 
which was possessed by the Egyptian ; and as they could 
Br jve nothing further from the instruction of their masters, 
1 naturally arrived for their emancipation. Up- 
)tibility of acquisition, on the part of the slave, 
vhole secret of his release from bondage. It is 
id moral inferiority which has enslaved, or sub- 
jected him to a superior. It is his rise, morally and intellec- 
tually, into the same form with his master, which alone can 
emancipate him.— (See Appendix.) It is possible that a time 
will come, when, taught by our schools, and made strong by 
our training, the negroes of the Southern States may arrive 
at freedom ; then, at least, his condition may be such as 
would entitle him to go forth out of bondage. It may be, 
when that time comes, that, like Pharoah, we too shall prove 
unwilling to give up our bondmen. But that that time is 
very far remote, is sufficiently evident from the condition of 
the free negroes in the Northern States, and elsewhere— the 
British West Indies, for example. There, in both regions, 
without restraints of any kind, they rather decline to a worse 
brutality, with every increase of privilege. In the former 
region, after a fifty years' enjoyment of their own rule, they 
have yet founded no city to themselves, raised no community 
of their own ; but are willing to remain the boot-cleaners and 
the bottle-washers of the whites, in a state of degrading infe- 
riority, which they are too obtuse to feel ; and are only made 
conscious of their degradation, by the occasional kicks and 
cuffs which they are made to endure, at the humor of the 
whites, and without any prospect of redress. They have not 
that moral courage— the true source of independence— which 
23* 



270 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

would prompt them, like the poor white pioneer, to sally 
forth into the wilderness, hew out their homes, and earn their 
rights by a complianee with their duties. They feel their 
inferiority to the whites, even when nominally freemen ; and 
sink into the condition of seniles, in fact, if not in name, in 
compliance with their natural dependence, and unquestion- 
able moral deficiencies. What they show themselves now, 
with every example around them stimulating them to free- 
dom and ambition, taken in connection with what they \\-:\e 
been shown to be from the earliest known periods of history, 
ought to be conelusive, with every person of common sense, 
not only that they have no capacity for an individual inde- 
pendent existence, but that they were always designed for a 
subordinate one. And why should we assume for the Deity, 
that he has set out with a design, in the creation and govern- 
ment of men, differing from those laws which he has pre- 
served in the case of all his other creatures. Why should 
there not be as many races of men, differing in degree, in 
Btrength, capacity, art, endowment, as we find them differing 
in shape, stature, color, organization ? Why, indeed, should 
there not be differing organizations amonix men, which shall 
distinctly shadow forth the several duties, and the assigned 
stations, which they are to fulfil and occupy in life. This 
would seem to be a necessity, analogous to what is apparent 
every where in all the other works of God's creation. Nay, is 
it not absolutely consistent with all that we learn from history 
of the uses of men and nations ? As we note their progress, 
we detect their mission ; and, this done, they themselves dis- 
appear. The African seems to have his mission. He does 
not disappear, but he still remains a slave or a savage ! 
I do not believe that he ever will be other than a slave, or 
that he was made to be otherwise ; but that he is designed as 
an implement in the hands of civilization always. You may 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 



271 



eradicate him from place, but not from life. If he ceases to 
exist in Virginia or Carolina, Georgia or Louisiana, it is only 
because he is doing the allotted tasks of his master in regions 
farther South. I look upon Negro Slavery as the destined 
ao-ent for the civilization of all the states of Mexico, and all 
the American states beyond. 

The circumstance which, more than anything beside — 
apart from his original genius — prepared the Anglo-American 
for the comparative condition of freedom which he enjoys, 
was the desperate adventure, the trying necessity, and the 
thousand toils through which he had to go, in contending 
with the sterility of an unfriendly soil, and the continual and 
thwarting hostility of surrounding and savage men. The 
very sterility of New-England, by imposing upon all classes 
the necessity of labor, gave strength and energy to her sons, 
and stability to_her institutions. Her severe austerity arose 
even more from her own toils and trials, than from her puri- 
tan ancestry; and, bating the bigotry and miserable exclu- 
siveness which, among the vast majority of her people, can 
find no greatness and little worth beyond her own borders, 
she confessedly stands among the most successful, in worldly 
affairs, of any people on the face of the earth. The fertility 
of the soil in the South, by readily yielding to the hands of 
Labor, is, without any paradox, the true source of our enerva- 
tion, and of the doubtful prosperity of our country — as a 
country merely. Individuals are successful and prosperous, 
but not the face of the country ; and however much this may 
be the subject of regret on the one hand, like the trumpet of 
Miss Martineau, it is not without its advantages. It results, 
we may state, in individuality of character among its people ; 
who never, in consequence, devolve upon societies, combina- 
tions, or their neighbors, their several duties of charity, hos- 
pitality and friendship ; and who sufficiently esteem their 



272 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

own morals, their sense of honor and humanity, to think they 
can do justice to the claims of their dependants, without the 
interference or tuition of any gratuitous philanthropy. 

The chapter which Miss Martineau devotes to the "Morals 
of Slavery," should rather be styled the morals of the com- 
munity. The excesses to which she refers, and in some 
respects particularizes, are excesses not confined to the slave 
States, and which do not, in any State, result from slavery. 
We contend for the morality of slavery among us, as we 
assert that the institution has wrought, and still conti- 
nues to work, the improvement of the negro himself; and 
we confidently challenge a comparison between the slave 
of Carolina, and the natives of the region from which his 
ancestors have been brought. No other comparison, with 
any other people, can properly be made. We challenge 
Comparison between the negro slave in the streets of Charles- 
ton, and the negro freeman — so called — in the streets of 
New- York. Compare either of these with the native Indian, 
and, so far as the civilized arts, and the ideas of civilization 
are involved in the comparison, you will find that the negro 
who has been taught by the white man, is always deferred 
to, in matters of counsel, by his own Indian master. The 
negro slave of a Muscoghee warrior, to my knowledge, in 
frequent instances, is commonly his best counsellor; and the 
primitive savage follows the direction of him, who, having 
been forced to obey the laws of his creation, has become 
wiser, in consequence, than the creature who wilfully refuses.* 

* " The Indian," says Miss Martineau, " looks with silent wonder 
upon the settler, who becomes visibly a capitalist in nine months, 
on the same spot where the red man has remained equally poor all 
his life." Elsewhere and everywhere she describes the negro slaves 
of the Indians as looking better than their masters. She attributes 
this to the milder form of their slavery to that of the whites ; though 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 273 

This subjection to the superior mind is the process through 
which every inferior nation has gone, and the price which the 
inferior people must always pay, for that knowledge of, and 
compliance with, their duties, which alone can bring them to 
the possession of their rights, and to the due attainment of 
their liberties — these liberties always growing in value and 
number with the improving tastes and capacities for their 
appreciation. Show me any people, which, complying with 
this inevitable condition, has not improved ! Show me one, 
refusing to comply, which has not perished ! Look at the 
history of man throughout the world, with the eye of a calm, 
unselfish, deliberate judgment, and say if this be not so. 
Regard the slave of Carolina, with a proper reference to the 
condition of the cannibal African from whom he has been 
rescued, and say if his bondage has not increased his value to 
himself, not less than to his master. We contend that it 
found him a cannibal, destined in his own country to eat his 
fellow, or to be eaten by him ; — that it brought him to a 
land in which he suffers no risk of life or limb, other than 
that to which his owner is equally subjected ; — that it in- 

the obvious inference should have been the greater advantages of 
white slavery in so educating the inferior African, as to lift him into 
a mental condition vastly superior to that of the red man, who, in a 
state of nature, is decidedly more intellectual than the black in a like 
state. She says, speaking of the religious education of the Indian — 
" I fear that the common process has here been gone through, of 
taking from the savage the venerable and true wdiieh he possessed, 
and to force upon him something else which is neither venerable nor 
true." This is one of those vague phrases and seem'ng philosophies 
with which the book abounds. The fact is, that the only " venera- 
ble and true" which is necessary, for the improvement of the Indian, 
is the compulsion of labor, whose laws are surely sufficiently venera- 
ble, and as surely ought to be true, considering where we find them — 
the venerable and true which he never yet has been taught, and is 
not now very likely to acquire. 



274 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

creases his fecundity infinitely beyond that of the people from 
■whom he lias been taken — that it increases his health and 
strength, improves his physical symmetry and animal organi- 
zation — that it elevates his mind and morals — that it extends 
his term of life — that it gives him better and more certain 
food, better clothing, and more kind and valuable attendance 
•when he is sick. These clearly establish the morality of the 
slave institutions in the South ; and, though they may not 
prove them to be as perfect as they may be made, as clearly 
show their propiiety and the necessity of preserving them. 
Indeed, the slaveholders of the South, having the moral and 
physical guardianship of an ignorant and irresponsible people 
under their control, are the great moral conservators, in one 
powerful interest, of the entire world. Assuming slavery to 
be a denial of justice to the negro, there is no sort of propri- 
ety in the application of the name of slave to the servile of 
the South. He is under no despotic power. There are laws 
which protect him, in his place, as inflexible as those which 
his proprietor is required to obey, in his place. Providence 
has placed him in our hands, for his good, and has paid us 
from his labor for our guardianship* Tne question with 
us is, sini] ly, as to the manner in which we have fulfilled our 
trust. How have we employed the talents which were given 
us — how have we discharged the duties of our guardianship ? 
What is the condition of the dependant ? Have we been 
careful to graduate his labors to his capacities ? Have we 

* The slaveholder has no right to free his slave — unless he is per- 
fectly assured of a mental and moral capacity in the slave, sufficiently 
strong and fixed, to enable him not only to maintain liis elevation, 
but to improve it. Having done so, let him appeal- before God, if 
he dare, and account for the trust committed to his hands. The 
moral and mental worth of the slave, can, alone, give us the right 
to discharge him from his depeudance. 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 275 

bestowed upon him a fair proportion of the fruits of his in- 
dustry ? Have we sought to improve his mind in correspon- 
dence with his condition? Have we raised his condition to 
the level of his improved mind ? Have we duly taught him 
his moral duties — bis duties to God and man ? And have 
we, in obedience to a scrutinizing conscience, been careful to 
punish only in compliance with his deserts, and never in 
brutali'y or wantonness? These are the grand questions for 
the tribunal of each slaveholder's conscience. He must an- 
swer them to his God. These are the only questions, and 
they apply equally to all his other relations in society. Let 
him carefully put them to himself, and shape his conduct, as 
a just man, in compliance with what he should consider a 
sacred duty, undertaken to God and man alike. 



APPENDIX 



In farther illustration of some of the topics embodied in 
tlii<, and other passages of this essay, I make an extract from 
a dialogue contained in the collection entitled "The Wigwam 
and the Cabin :" 

" Savages are children in all but physical respects. To do 
anything with them, yon must place them in that position of 
responsibility, and teach them that law, without the due re- 
cognition of which, any attempt to educate a child must be 
an absurdity — you must teach them obedience. They must 
be made to know, at the outset, that they know' nothing, and 
they must implicitly defer to the superior. This lesson thej 
will never learn, so long as they pos-css the power, at any 
moment, to withdraw from his control." 

" Vet, even were this to be allowed, there must be a limit. 
There must come a time when you will be required to eman- 
cipate them. In what circumstances will you tind that time ? 
You cannot keep them under this coercion always; when will 
you set them free I" 

" When they are fit for freedom." 

" How is that to be determined I Who shall decide their 
fitness ?" 

"Themselves; as in the case of the children of Israel. 
The children of Israel went out from bondage as soon as their 
own intellectual advancement had been such as to enable 
them to produce from their own ranks a leader like Moses : — 
one whose genius was equal to that of the people by whom 
they had been educated, and sufficient for their own proper 
government thereafter." 

" But has not an experiment of this sort already been tried 
in our country P 1 

" Nay, I think not — I know of none." 



i 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 277 

" Yes : an Indian boy was taken, in infancy, from his pa- 
rents, carried to one of the Northern States, trained in all the 
learning and habits of a Northern college and society, asso- 
ciated only with whites, beheld no manners, and heard no 
morals, but those which are known to Christian communities. 
His progress was satisfactory — he learned rapidly — was con- 
sidered something of a prodigy, and graduated with eclat. 
He was then left, with the same option which the rest enjoyed, 
to the choice of a profession. And what was his choice ? 
Do you not remember the beautiful little poem of Freneau 
on this subject? He chose the buckskin leggins, the mocca- 
sins, bow and arrows, and the wide, wild forests, where his 
people dwelt." 

" Freneau's poem tells the story somewhat differently. The 
facts upon which it is founded, however, are, I believe, very 
much as you tell them. But what an experiment it was ! 
How very silly ! They take a copper-colored boy from his 
people, and carry him, while yet an infant, to a remote region. 
Suppose, in order that the experiment may be fairly tried, 
that they withhold from him all knowledge of his origin. He 
is brought up precisely as the other lads around him. But 
what is the first discovery which he makes ? That he is a 
copper-colored boy ; that he is, alone, the only copper-colored 
boy ; that, wherever he turns, he sees no likenesses of himself. 
This begets his wonder, then his curiosity, and finally his sus- 
picion. He soon understands — for his suspicion sharpens 
every faculty of observation — that he is an object of experi- 
ment. Nay, the most cautious policy in the world could 
never entirely keep this from a keen-thonghted urchin. His 
fellow pupils teach him this. He sees that, to them, he is an 
object of curiosity and study. They regard him, and he soon 
regards himself, as a creature set apart, and separated, for 
some peculiar purposes, from all the rest. A stern and sin- 
gular sense of individuality and isolation is thus forced upon 
him. He asks — Am I, indeed, alone? — Who am I? — What 
ami? These inquiries naturally occasion others. Does he 
read ? Books give him the history of his race. Nay, his 
own story probahly meets his eye, in the newspapers. He 
learns that he is descended from a nation dwelling among the 
secret sources of the Susquehaunah. He pries in all corners 
24 



278 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

for more information. The more secret his search, the more 
keenly does lie pursue it. it becomes the great jiassioii of 
his mind. He learns that his people are fierce warriors and 
famous hunters, lie hears of their suites with the white 
man — their successful strifes, when the nation could send 
forth its thousand bow-men, and the whites were few and 
feeble. Perhaps the young pale faces around him speak of 
his people, even now, as enemies ; at least, as objects of sus- 
picion, and possibly antipathy. All these things tend to ele- 
vate and idealize, in his mind, the history of his people. He 
cherishes a sympathy, even beyond the natural desires of the 
heart, for the perishing race from which he feels himself, 'like 
a limb, cast bleeding and torn.' The curiosity to see his an- 
cestry — the people of his tribe and country — would be the 
most natural feeling of the white boy, under similar circum- 
stances ; shall we wonder that it is the predominant passion 
in the bosom of the Indian, whose very complexion forces 
him away from all connection with the rest ! My idea of 
the experiment — if such a proceeding can be called an expe- 
riment — is soon spoken. As a statement of facts, 1 see no- 
thing to provoke wonder. The result was the most natural 
thing in the world, and a man of ordinary powers of reflec- 
tion might easily have predicted it, precisely as it happened. 
The only wonder is that there should be found, among per- 
sons of ordinary education and sagacity, men who siiould 
have undertaken such an experiment, and fancied that they 
"Were busy in a moral and philosophical problem." 
"Why, how would you have the experiment tried V 
"As it was tried upon the Hebrews, upon the ISaxons, upon 
every savage people who ever became civilized. It cannot be 
tried upon an individual ; it must be tried uj on a natiou — at 
least upon a community, sustained by no succor from with- 
out — having no forests or foreign shores, upon which to turn 
their eyes for refuge — having no mode or hope of es- 
cape — under the full control of an already civilized people — 
and sufficiently numerous among themselves to tind sympa- 
thy against those necessary rigors which at hist will stem 
oppressive, but whuh will be the only hopeful process by 
which to enforce the work of improvement. They must rind 
this sympathy from beholding others, like themselves in as- 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 279 

pect, form, feature and condition, subject to the same unusual 
restraints. In this contemplation, they will be content to 
pursue their labors, under a rule which they cannot dis- 
place. But the natural law must be satisfied. There must 
be opportunities yielded for the indulgence of the legitimate 
passions. The young, of both sexes, among the subjected 
people, must commune- and form ties, in obedience to the 
requisitions of nature and according to their national customs. 
What if the Indian student, on whom the 'experiment' was 
tried, had paid his addresses to a white maiden ? What a 
revulsion of the moral and social sense would have followed 
his proposition, in the mind of the Saxon damsel ; and, were 
she to consent, what a commotion in the community in which 
she lived! And this revulsion and commotion would be 
perfectly natural, and, accordingly, perfectly proper. God 
has made an obvious distinction between the races of men, 
setting them apart, and requiring them to be kept so, by 
subjecting them to the resistance and rebuke of one of the 
most jealous sentinels of sense which we possess — the eye. 
The prejudices of this sense require that the natural barriers 
should be maintained, and hence it becomes necessary that 
the race in subjection should be sufficiently numerous to ena- 
ble it to carry out the great object of every distinct commu- 
nity, though, perchance, it may happen to be an inferior one. 
In process of time, the beneficial and blessing effeets of labor 
would be felt and understood by the most ignorant and savage 
of tin- race. Perhaps not in one generation, or in two, but 
after the fifth and seventh, as it is written, ' of those who keep 
my commandments.' They would soon discover that, though 
compelled to toil, their toils neither enfeebled their strength 
nor impaired their happiness ; that, on the contrary, they still 
resulted in their increasing strength, health and comfort; that 
their food, which before was precarious, depending on the 
caprices of the seasons, or the uncertainties of the chase, was 
now equally plentiful, wholesome and certain. They would 
also perceive that, instead of the sterility which is usually the 
destiny of all wandering tribes, and one of the processes by 
which they perish, the fecundity of their people was wonder- 
fully increased. These discoveries — if time be allowed to 
make them — would tacitly reconcile them to that inferior 



280 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

position of their race, which i^ proper and inevitable, so long 
as their intellectual inferiority shall continue. And what 
would have been the effect upon our Indians — decidedly the 
noblest race of aborigines that the world has ever known — if, 
instead of buying their scalps, at prices varying from five to 
fifty shillings, each, we had conquered and subjected them? 
Will any one pretend to say that they would not have in- 
creased, with the restraints and enforced toils of our superior 
genius? — that they would not, by this time, have formed a 
highly valuable and noble integral in the formation of our 
national strength and character ? Perhaps their civilization 
Mould have been comparatively easy. Hie Hebrews required 
four hundred years; the Britons and Saxons, possibly, half 
that time, after the Norman Conquest Differing in color 
from their conquerors, though, I suspect, with a natural genius 
superior to that of the ancient Britons^ at the time of the 
Roman invasion under Julius Caesar, the struggle between 
the two races must have continued i'or some longer time ; but 
the union would have been finally effected, and then, as in 
the case of the Englishman, we should have possessed a race, 
in their progeny, which, in moral and physical structure, might 
have challenged competition with the world." 

" Ay, but the difficulty would have been in the conquest." 
" True, that would have been the difficulty. The American 
coloni-ts were few in number and feeble in resource. The 
nations from which they emerged put forth none of their 
strength, in sending tin m forth. Never were colonies so in- 
adequately provided, so completely left to themselves; and 
hence the peculiar injustice and insolence of the subsequent 
exactions of the British, by which they required their colonies 
to support their schemes of aggrandizement and expenditure, 
by submitting to extreme taxation. Do you suppose, if the 
early colonists had been powerful, that they would have ever 
deigned to treat for lands with the roving hordes of savages 
whom they found on the continent ? Never ! Their purchases 
and treaties were not for lands, but tolerance. They bought 
permission to remain without molestation. The amount pro- 
fessedly paid for land was simply a tribute, paid to the supe- 
rior strength of the Indian, precisely as we paid it to Algiers 
and the Mussulmens, until we grew strong enough to whip 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 281 

them into respect. If, instead of a few ships, and a few hun- 
dred men, timidly making their approaches along the shores 
of Manhattan, Penobscot and Ocracocke, some famous leader, 
like JEneas, had brought his entire people — suppose them to 
be the persecuted Irish — what a wondrous difference would 
have taken piace. The Indians would have been subjected — 
would have sunk into their proper position of humility and 
dependence — and, by this time, might have united with their 
conquerors, producing, perhaps, along the great ridge of the 
Alleghany, the very noblest specimens of humanity, in mental 
and bodily stature, that the world has ever witnessed. The 
Indians were taught to be insolent, by the fears and feebleness 
of the whites. They were flattered by fine words, by rich 
presents, and abundance of deference, until the ignorant sav- 
age — but a single degree above the brute — who, until then, 
had never been sure of his porridge for more than a day 
ahead — took airs upon himself, and became one of the most 
conceited and arrogant lords in creation. The colonists grew 
wiser as they grew stronger ; but the evil was already done, 
and we are reaping some of the bitter fruits, at this day, of 
seed unwisely sown in that. It may be that we shall yet see 
the experiment tried fairly." 

"Ah, indeed — where?" 

" Ln Mexico, by the Texans. Let the vain, capricious, igno- 
rant and dastardly wretches, who now occupy and spoil the 
face and fortunes of the former country, persevere in pressing 
war upon those sturdy adventurers, and their doom is written. 
\fear it may be the sword ; I hope it may be the milder fate 
of bondage and subjection. Such a fate would save, and 
raise them finally to a far higher condition than they have 
ever before enjoyed. Thirty thousand Texans, each with his 
horse and rifle, would soon make themselves masters of the 
city of Montezuma, and then may you see the experiment 
tried upon a scale sufficiently extensive to make it a fair one. 
But your Indian student, drawn from 

' Susqueliannah's farthest springs/ 

and sent to Cambridge, would present you some such moral 
picture as that of the prisoner described by Sterne. His 
chief employment, day by day, would consist in notching 
24* 



282 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

upon his stick the underrating record of his daily suffering. 
It would be, to him, an experiment almost as full of torture 
as that of the Scottish boot, the Spanish thumbscrew, or any 
of those happy devices of ancient days, for impressing pleas- 
ant principles upon the mind, by impressing unpleasant feel- 
ings upon the thews, joints and sinews. 1 wish that some 
one of our writers, familiar with mental analysis, would make 
this poem of Freneau the subject of a story. I think it would 
vield admirable material. To develope the thoughts and 
feelings of an Indian hoy, taken from his people ere yet he 
has formed such a knowledge of them, or of others, as to 
have begun to discuss or compare their differences — follow 
him to a college such as that of Princeton or Cambridg< — 
watch him within its walls — amid the crowd, but not of it — 
looking only within himself, while all others are looking into 
him, or trying to do so — surrounded by active, sharp-witted 
lads, of the Anglo-Norman raot — undergoing an hourly re- 
peated series of moral spasms, as he hears them wantonly or 
thoughtlessly dwell upon the wild and ignorant people from 
whom he is chosen — listening, though without seeming to 
listen, to their crude speculations upon the great problem, 
which is to be solved only by seeing how well he can endure 
his spasms, and what use he will make of his philosophy, if 
he survives it — then, when the toils of study and the tedious 
restraints and troubles of prayer and recitation are got over, 
to behold and describe the joy with which the happy wretch 
flings by his fetters, when he is dismissed from those walls 
which have witnessed his tortures, even supposing him to 
remain (which is very unlikely) until his course of study is 
pronounced to be complete ! With what curious pleasure 
will he stop, in the shadow of the first deep forest, to tear 
from his limbs those garments which make him seem unlike 
his people ! How quick will be the beating at his heart, as 
he endeavors to dispose about his shoulders the blanket robe, 
in the manner in which it is worn by the chief warrior of his 
tribe! With what keen effort — should he have had any pre- 
vious knowledge of his kindred — will he seek to compel his 
memory to restore every, the slightest, custom or peculiarity 
which distinguished them, when his eyes were first withdrawn 
from the parental tribe ; and how closely will he imitate their 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 283 

indomitable pride, and lofty, cold, superiority of look and 
gesture, as, at evening, he enters the native hamlet, and takes 
his seat, in silence, at the door of the council house, waiting, 
without a word, for the summons of the elders !" 

" Quite a picture. I think with you, that, in good hands, 
such a subject would prove a very noble one." 

" But trie story would not finish here. Supposing all this 
to have taken place, just as we are told it did — supposing the 
boy to have graduated at college, and to have flung away the 
distinction— to have returned, as has been described, to his 
costume — to the homes and habits of his people ; — it is not 
so clear that he will fling away all the lessons of wisdom, all 
the knowledge of facts, which he will have acquired from the 
tuition of the superior race. A natural instinct, which is 
above all lessons, must be complied with ; but, this done, 
and when the first tumults of his blood have subsided, which 
led him to defeat the more immediate object of his social 
training, there will be a gradual resumption of the educa- 
tional influence in his mind, and his intellectual habits will 
begin to exercise themselves anew. They will be provoked, 
necessarily, to this exercise, by what he beholds around him. 
He will begin to perceive, in its true aspects, the wretchedness 
of that hunter state, which, surveyed at a distance, appeared 
only the embodiment of stoical heroism and the most elevated 
pride. He will see and lament the squalid poverty of his 
people, which, his first lessons in civilization must have shown 
him, is due only to the mode of life and pursuits in which 
they are engaged. Their beastly intoxication will offend his 
tastes ; their superstition and ignorance — the circumscribed 
limits of their capacity for judging of things and relations, 
beyond the life of the bird or beast of prey — will awaken in 
him a sense of shame, when he feels that they are his kin- 
dred. The insecurity of their liberties will awaken his fears, 
for he will instantly see that the great body of the people, in 
every aboriginal nation, are the veriest slaves in the world ; 
and the degrading exhibitions which they make, in their tilth 
and drunkenness, which reduce the man to a loathsomeness 
of aspect which is never reached by the vilest beast which he 
hunts or scourges, will be beheld by the Indian student in 
very lively contrast with all that has met his eyes during that 



284 THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 

novitiate among the white sages, the processes of which have 
been to him so humiliating and painful. His memory reverts 
to that period with feelings of reconciliation. The torture is 
over, and the remembrance of former pain, endured with 
manly fortitude, is comparatively a pleasure. A necessary 
reaction in his mind takes place; and, agreeably to the laws 
of nature, what will, and what should follow, but that he will 
seek to become the tutor and the reformer of his people ? 
They, themselves, will tacitly raise him to this position ; for 
the man of the forest will defer even to the negro who has 
been educated by the white man. He will try to teach them 
habits of greater method and industry ; he will overthrow 
the altars of their false gods ; he will seek to bind the wan- 
dering tribes together, under one head, and in one nation ; 
he will prescribe uniform laws of government He will suc- 
Ceed in some things; he will fail in others. He will offend 
the pride of the self- conceited and the mulish — the priesthood 
will he the first to declare against him — and he will be mur- 
dered, most probably, as was Romulus, and afterwards deified. 
If he escapes this fate, he will yet, most likely, perish from 
mortification under failure, or in consequence of those mental 
strifes which spring from that divided allegiance between the 
feelings belonging to his savage, and those which have had 
their origin in his Christian schools — those natural strifes 
between the acquisitions of civilization on the one hand, and 
those instinct tendencies of the blood which distinguish his 
connection with the inferior race. In this conflict, he will, at 
length, when the enthusiasm of his youthful zeal has become 
chilled by frequent and unexpected defeat, falter, and finally 
fail. But will there be nothing done for this people ? Who 
can say ] I believe that no seed falls, without profit, by the 
wayside. Even if the truth produces no immediate fruits, it 
forms a moral manure, which fertilizes the otherwise barren 
heart, in preparation for the more favorable season. The In- 
dian student may fail, as his teachers did, in realizing the ob- 
ject for which he has striven ; and this sort of failure is, by 
the way, one of the most ordinary of human allotment. The 
desires of man's heart, by an especial providence, that always 
wills him to act for the future, generally aim at something 
far beyond his own powers of performance. But the labor 



THE MORALS OF SLAVERY. 285 

has not been taken in vain, in the progress of successive agps, 
which has achieved even a small part of its legitimate purpo- 
ses. The Indian student has done for his people much more 
than the white man achieves, ordinarily, for his generation, if 
he has only secured to their use a single truth which they 
knew not before — if he has overthrown only one of their 
false gods — if he has smitten off the snaky head of only one 
of their superstitious prejudices. If he has added to their 
fields of corn a field of millet, he has induced one farther 
physical step towards moral improvement. Nay, if there be 
no other result, the very deference which they will have paid 
him, as the eUve of the white man, will be a something gained, 
of no little importance, towards inducing their more ready, 
though still tardy, adoption of the laws and guidance of the 
superior race." 



PROFESSOR DEW 01 SLAVERY* 



In looking to the texture of the population of our country, 
there is nothing so well calculated to arrest the attention of 
the observer, as the existence of negro slavery throughout a 
large portion of the confederacy. A race of people, differing 
from us in color and in habits, and vastly inferior in the scale 
of civilization, have been increasing and spreading, "growing 
with our growth, and strengthening with our strength," until 
they have become intertwined and intertwisted with every 
fibre of society. Go through our Southern country, and every 
where you see the negro slave by the side of the white man ; 
you find him alike in the mansion of the rich, the cabin of 
the poor, the workshop of the mechanic, and the field-* of the 
planter. Upon the contemplation of a population framed 
like this, a curious and interesting question readily suggests 
itself to the inquiring mind : — Can these two distinct races of 
people, now living together as master and servant, be ever 
separated ? Can the black be sent back to his African home, 
or will the day ever arrive when he can be liberated from his 
thraldom, and mount upwards in the scale of civilization and 
rights, to an equaiity with the white ? This is a question of 

* Review of the debate in the Virginia Legislature, 1831-'32. By 
Thomas R. Dew, Professor of Hittory, Metaphysics, and Political Law, 
William and Mary College, Virginia. Abol. ton of Slavery. 1. De- 
bate in the Virginia Legislature of '31 '32, on the Abo.ition of Slavery. 
Richmond. 2. Letter of Appomattox to the People of Virginia, on 
the subject of the Abolition of Slavery. Richmond. 



288 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

truly momentous character; it involves the whole framework 
of society, contemplates a separation of its elements, or a 
radical change in their relation, and requires, for its adequate 
investigation, the most complete and profound knowledge of 
the nature and sources of national wealth and political ag- 
grandizement, an acquaintance with the elastic and powerful 
spring of population, and the causes which invigorate or pa- 
ralyze its energies, together with a clear perception of the 
varying rights of man, amid all the changing circumstances 
by which he may be surrounded, and a profound knowledge 
of all the principles, passions, and susceptibilities which make 
up the moral nature of our species, and according as they are 
acted up<»n by adventitious circumstances, alter our condition, 
and produce all that wonderful variety of character which so 
strongly marks and characterizes the human family, j Well, 
then, does it behoove even the wisest statesmen to approach 
this august subject with the utmost circumspection and diffi- 
dence ; its wanton agitation even is pregnant with mischief; 
but rash and hasty action threatens, in our opinion, the whole 
Southern country with irremediable ruin. The evil of yes- 
terday's growth may be extirpated to-day, and the vigor of 
society may heal the wound ; but that which is the growth of 
ayes, may require ayes to remove. The Parliament of Great 
Britain, with all its philanthropic zeal, guided by the wisdom 
and eloquence of such statesmen as Chatham, Fox, Burke, 
Titt, Canning and Brougham, has never yet seriously agitated 
this question, in regard to the West India possessions. Re- 
volutionary France, actuated by the most intemperate and 
phrenetic zeal for liberty and equality, attempted to legislate 
the free people of color, in the Island of St. Domingo, into 
all the rights and privileges of the whites ; and, but a season 
afterwards, convinced of her madness, she attempted to retrace 
her steps. But it was too late. The deed had been done. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 289 

The bloodiest and most shocking insurrection ever recorded 
in the annals of* history had broken out, and the whole Island 
was involved in frightful carnage and anarchy, and France, in 
the end, has been stript "of the brightest jewel in her crown," 
the fairest and most valuable of all her colonial possessions. 
Since the revolution, France, Spain and Portugal, large owners 
of colonial possessions, have not only not abolished slavery in 
their colonies, but have not even abolished the slave trade in 
practice. 

In our Southern slaveholding country, the question of eman- 
cipation has never been seriously discussed in any of our 
legislatures, until the whole subject, under the most exciting 
circumstances, was, during the last winter, brought up for 
di-cussion in the Virginia Legislature, and plans of partial or 
total abolition were earnestly pressed upon the attention of 
that body. It is well known that, during the last summer, in 
the county of Southampton, in Virginia, a few slaves, led on 
by Nat Turner, rose in the night, and murdered, in the most 
inhuman and shocking manner, between sixty and seventy of 
the unsuspecting whites of that county. The news, of course, 
was rapidly diffused, and, with it, consternation and dismay 
were spread throughout the State, destroying, for a time, all 
feeling of security and confidence ; and, even when subsequent 
development had proved that the conspiracy had been origi- 
nated by a fanatical negro preacher, (whose confessions prove, 
beyond a doubt, mental aberration,) and that this conspiracy 
embraced but few slaves, all of whom had paid the penalty 
of their crimes, still the excitement remained, still the repose 
of the commonwealth was disturbed, for the ghastly horrors 
of the Southampton tragedy could not immediately be ban- 
ished from the mind — and rumor, too, with her thousand 
tongues, was busily engaged in spreading tales of disaffection, 
plots, insurrections, and even massacres, which frightened the 
25 



290 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

timid, Rod harassed and mortified the whole of the slavehold- 
ing population. During this period of excitement, when rea- 
son whs almost banished from the mind, and the imagination 
was suffered to conjure up the most appalling phantoms, and 
picture to itself a crisis, in the vista of futurity, when the 
overwhelming numbers of the blacks would rise superior to 
all restraint, and involve the fairest portion of our land in 
universal nun and d« solution. \u- are not to wonder that, even 
in the lower part of Virginia, many should have seriously 
inquired if this supposed monstrous evil could not In* remove d 
from our bosom ? Some looked to the removal of the free 
people of color, by the effo ts of the Colonization Socii ty, as 
an antidote to all our ills. Some were disposed to strike at 
the root of the evil: to call on the General Government for 
aid, and, by the labors of Hercules, to extirpate the curse of 
slavery from the land. Others again, whoconld not bear that 
Virginia should stand towards the ( reneral ( rovernment (whose 
unconstitutional action she bad ever been foremost to resist) 
in the attitude of a suppliant, looked forward to the legislative 
action of the State, as capable of achieving the desired result. 
In this state of excitement and un allayed apprehension, the 

. islature met, and plans for abolition were proposed, and 
earnestly advocated in debate. 

Upon the impropriety of this debate, we beg leave to make 
a few observations. Any scheme of abolition, proposed so 
soon after the Southampton tragedy, would necessarily appeal 
to be the result of that most inhuman massacre. Suppose 
the negroes, then, to be really anxious for their emancipation, 
uo matter on what terms, would not the extraordinary effect 
produced on the Legislature by the Southampton insurrection, 
in all probability, have a tendency to excite another ? And 
we must recollect, from the nature of things, no plan of abo- 
lition could act suddenly on the whole mass of slave popula- 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 291 



tion in the State. Mr. Randolph's was not even to commence 
its operation till 1810. Waiting, then, one year or more, 
until the excitement could be allayed, and the empire of rea- 
son could once more have been established, would surely have 
been productive of no injurious consequences ; and, in the 
mean time, a Legislature could have been selected, which 
would much better have represented the \iews and wishes of 
their constituents, on this vital question. Virginia could have 
ascertained the sentiments and wishes of other slaveholding 
States, whose concurrence, if not absolutely necessary, might 
be highly desirable, and should have been sought after and 
attended to, at least, as a matter of State courtesy. Added 
to this, the texture of the Legislature was not of that charac- 
ter calculated to ensure the confidence of the people, in a 
movement of this kind. If ever there was a question debated 
in a deliberative body, which called for the most exalted talent, 
the longest and mo^t tried experience, the utmost circumspec- 
tion and caution, a complete exemption from prejudice a*id 
undue excitement, where both are apt to prevail, an ardent 
and patriotic desire to advance the vital interests of the State, 
uncombined with mere desire for vain and ostentatious display, 
and with no view to party or geographical divisions, that 
question was the question of the abolition of slavery, in the 
Virginia Legislature. " Grave and reverend seniors," u the 
very fathers of the Republic," were indeed required, for the 
settlement of a question of such magnitude. It appears, 
however, that the Legislature was composed of an unusual 
number of young and inexperienced members, elected in the 
month of April, previous to the Southampton massacre, and 
at a time of profound tranquillity and repose, when, of course, 
the people were not disposed to call from their retirement 
their most distinguished and experienced citizens. 

We are very ready to admit, that in point of ability and 



292 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

eloquence, the debate transcended our expectations. One of 
the leading political papers in the State remarked, " We have 
never heard any debate so eloquent, so sustained, and in which 
so great a number of speakers had appeared, and commanded 
the attention of so numerous and intelligent an audience." 

"Day after day, multitudes throng to the capital, 

and have been compensated by eloquence which would have 
illustrated Rome or Athens." But, however fine might have 
been the rhetorical display, however ably some isolated points 
may have been discussed, Btill we affirm, with confidence, that 
no enlarged, wise and practical plan of operations was pro- 

posed by the abolitionists. We will go farther, and assert 

that their arguments, in most cases, were of a wild and in- 
temperate character, based upon false principles, and assump- 
tions of the most vicious ami alarming kind, subversive of t be 
rights of property and the order and tranquillity of society, 
and portending to the whole Blaveholding country — if they 
ever shall be followed out in practice — the most inevitable 
and ruinous consequences. Far be it, however, from us, to 
accuse the abolitionists in the Virginia Legislature of any 
settled or malevolent design to overturn or convulse the fabric 
of society. We have no doubt that they were acting con- 
scientiously for the best; but it often happens that frail, im- 
perfect man, in the too ardent and confident pursuit of imagi- 
nary good, runs upon his utter destruction. 

We have not formed our opinion lightly upon this subject; 
we have given to the vital question of abolition the most ma- 
ture and intense consideration which we are capable of be- 
stowing, and we have come to the conclusion — a conclusion 
which seems to be sustained by facts and reasoning as irre- 
sistible as the demonstration of the mathematician — that every 
plan of emancipation and deportation which we can possibly 
conceive, is totally impracticable. We shall endeavor to prove 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 293 

that the attempt to execute these plans can only have a ten- 
dency to increase all the evils of which we complain, as re- 
sulting from slavery. If this be true, then the great question 
of abolition will necessarily be reduced to the question of 
emancipation, with a permission to remain, which, we think, 
can easily be shown to be utterly subversive of the interests, 
security and happiness of both the blacks and whites, and 
consequently, hostile to every principle of expediency, moral- 
ity, and religion. We have heretofore doubted the propriety, 
even, of too frequently agitating, especially in a public man- 
ner, the question of abolition, in consequence of the injurious 
effects which might be produced on the slave population. 
But the Virginia Legislature, in its zeal for discussion, boldly 
set aside all prudential considerations of this kind, and openly 
and publicly debated the subject, before the world. The seal 
has now been broken— the example has been set from a high 
quarter; we shall, therefore, waive all considerations of a 
prudential character, which have hitherto restrained us, and 
boldly grapple with the abolitionists and this great question. 
We fear not the result, so far as truth, justice and expediency 
alone are concerned. But we must be permitted to say that 
we do most deeply dread the effects of misguided philanthro- 
py, and the marked, and, we had like to have said, imperti- 
nert intrusion in this matter, of those who have no interest 
at stake, and who have not intimate and minute knowledge 
of the whole subject, so absolutely necessary to wise action. 

Without further preliminary, then, we shall advance to the 
discussion of the question of abolition, noticing not only the 
plans proposed in the Virginia Legislature, but some others, 
likewise. And, as the subject of slavery has been considered 
in every point of view, and pronounced, in the abstract, at least, 
as entirely contrary to the law of nature, we propose taking, in 
25* 



294 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

the first place, a hasty view of the origin of slavery, and point out 
the influence which it lias exerted on the progress of civilization, 
and to this purpose it will be necessary to look back to other 
ages — cast a glance at nations differing from us in civilization 
and manners, and see whether it is possible to mount to the 
source of slavery. 

1. Origin of Slavery, and its Effects on the Progress of 
Civilization. 

Upon an examination of the nature of man, we find him 
to be almost entirely the creature of circumstances — his habits 
and sentiments are, in a great measure, the growth of adven- 
titious causes — hence the endless variety and condition of our 
species. We are almost ever disposed, however, to identify 
the course of nature with the progress of events in our own 
narrow contracted sphere ; we look upon any deviation from 
the constant round in which we have been spinning out the 
thread of our existence, as a departure from nature's great 
BJStera, and, from a known principle of our nature, our first 
impulse is to condemn. It is thus that the man born and 
matured in the lap of freedom, looks upon slavery as unna- 
tural and horrible ; and, if he be not instructed upon the 
subject, is sure to think that so unnatural a condition could 
never exist, but in few countries or ages, in violation of every 
law of justice or humanity ; and he is almost disposed to 
implore the divine wrath, to shower down the consuming fire 
of heaven on the Sodoms and Gomorrahs of the world, w here 
this unjust practice prevails. 

But, when he examines into the past condition of mankind, 
he stands amazed at the fact which history develops to his 
view. " Almost every page of ancient history, 11 says Wallace, 
in his Dissertation on the Numbers of Mankind, "demon- 
strates the great multitudes of slaves ; which gives occasion 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 295 

to a melancholy reflection, that the world, when best peopled, 
was not a world of freemen, but of slaves."* » And in every 
age and country, until times comparatively recent/' says Hal- 
lam, "personal servitude appears to have been the lot of a 
large, perhaps the greater portion of mankind."! 

Slavery was established and sanctioned by divine authority, 
among even the elect of heaven, the favored'children of Israel! 
Abraham, the founder of this interesting nation, and the cho- 
sen servant of the Lord, was the owner of hundreds of slaves. 
That magnificent shrine, th# Temple of Solomon, was reared 
by the hands of slaves.' Egypt's venerable and enduring piles 
were reared by similar hands. Slavery existed in Assyria and 
Babylon. The ten tribes of Israel were carried off in bondage 
to the former by Shalmanezar, and the two tribes of Judah 
were subsequently carried in triumph by Nebuchadnezzar, to 
beautify and adorn the latter. Ancient Phoenicia and Car- 
thage had slaves. The Greeks and Trojans, at the siege of 
Troy, had slaves. Athens, and Sparta, and Thebes, indeed 
the whole Grecian and Roman worlds, had more slaves than 
freemen. And in those ages which succeeded the extinction 
of the Roman empire in the West, « servi, or slaves," says 
Dr. Robertson, "seem to have been the most numerous 
class."! Even in this day of civilization, and the regeneration 
of governments, slavery is far from being confined to our 
hemisphere alone. The serf and labor rents prevale.it through- 
out the whole of Eastern Europe, and a portion of Western 
Asia, and the ryot rents throughout the extensive and over 
populated countries of the East, and over the dominions of 
the Porte in Europe, Asia and Africa, but too conclusively 

* P. 9.*?, Edinburgh edition. 

f Middle Ages, vol. 1, p . 120, Philapelphia edition. 

t See Robertson's Works, vol. 3, p. 186. 



29G PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

mark the existence of slavery over these boundless regions. 
And when we turn to the continent of Africa, we find slavery, 
in all its most horrid forms, existing throughout its whole 
extent, the slaves being at least three times more numerous 
than the freemen ; so that, looking to the whole world, we 
may, even now, with confidence assert, that slaves, or those 
whose condition is infinitely worse, form by far the largest 
portion of the human race ! 

Well, then, may we here pause, and inquire a moment — 
for it is surely worthy of inquiry — how has slavery arisen and 
thus spread over our globe '. We shall not pretend to enu- 
merate accurately, aud in detail, all the causes which have 
led to slavery; but we 1>< lieve the principal may be summed 
up wider the following heads : 1st. LawsofWar; 2d. State 
of Property and Feebleness of Government; 3d. Bargain 
and Sale ; and -4th. Crime. 

1st. haws of War. — There is no circumstance which more 
honorably and creditably characterizes modern warfare, than 
the humanity with which it is waged, and the mildness with 
which captives are treated. Civilized nations, with but few 
exceptions, now act in complete conformity with the wise rule 
laid down by Qrotius, " that in war we have a right only to 
the use of those means which have a connection morally ne- 
cessary with the end in view." Consequently, we have no 
just right, where this rule is adhered to by our adversary, to 
enslave or put to death enemies non-€ombatant, who may be 
in our possession : for this, in modern times, among civilized 
nations, is not morally necessary to the attainment of the end 
in view. On the contrary, if such a practice were commenced 
now, it would only increase the calamities of the belligerents, 
by converting their wars into wars of extermination, or rapine 
and plunder, terminated generally with infinitely less advan- 
tage, and more difficulty to each of the parties. But humane 






PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 297 

' and advantageous as this mitigated practice appears, we are 

i not to suppose it universal, or that it has obtained in all ages. 
On the contrary, it is the growth of modern civilization, and 
has been confined, in a great measure, to civilized Europe and 

j its colonies. 

Writers on the progress of society designate three stages in 
which man has been found to exist. First, the hunting or 
fishing state ; second, the pastoral ; third, agricultural. Man, 
in the hunting state, has ever been found to wage war in the 
most cruel and implacable manner, extermination being the 
object of the belligerent tribes. " Never has there been a finer 
field presented to the philosopher, for a complete investigation 
of the character of any portion of our species, than the whole 
American hemisphere presented, for the complete investigation 
of the character of savages, in the hunting and fishing state. 
Dr. Robertson has given us a most appalling description of 
the cruelties with wh'ch savage warfare was waged, through- 
out the whole continent of America, and the barbarous man- 

inerin which prisoners were everywhere put to death. He 

I justly observes, that the bare description is enough to chill the 
heart with horror, wherever men have been accustomed, by 

i milder institutions, to respect their species, and to melt into 
tenderness at the sight of human sufferings. The prisoners 
are tied naked to a stake, but so as to be at liberty to move 

|round it. All who are present — men, women and children — 
rush upon them like furies. Every species of torture is applied, 
that the rancor of revenge can invent: some burn their limbs 
with red hot iron, some mangle their bodies with knives, 
others tear their flesh from their bones, pluck out their nails 
by the roots, and rend and twist their sinews. Nothing sets 
bounds to their rage but the dread of abridging the duration 
of their vengeance, by hastening the death of the sufferers ; 
and such is their cruel ingenuity in tormenting, that, by avoid- 



298 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

ing industriously to hurt any vital part, they often prolong 
the scene of anguish for several days."* 

Let us now inquire into the cause of such barbarous prac- 
tices, and we shall rind that they must be imputed principally 
to the passion of revenge. In the language of the same elo- 
quent writer whom we have just quoted, "in small com- 
munities, every man is touched with the injury or affront 
offered to the hody of which he is a member, as if it were a 
personal attack on his own honor and safety. War, which, 
between extensive kingdoms, is carried on with little animosi- 
ty, is prosecuted by small tribes with all the rancor of a pri- 
vate quarrel. When polished nations have obtained the 
glory of victory, or have acquired an addition of territory, 
they may terminate a war with honor. But savages are not 
satisfied, until they extirpate the community which is the | 
object of their hatred. They tight not to conquer, hut de- 
stroy." "The desire of vengeance is the first, and almost the ' 
only principle, which a savage instils into the minds of his . 
children. The desire of vengeance, which takes possession of ' 
the hearts of savages, resembles the instinctive rage of an 
animal, rather than the passion of a man."f Unfortunately, 
too, interest conspires with the desire of revenge, to render 
savage warfare horrible. The wants of the savage, it is true, 
are few and simple; but, limited as they are, according to 
their mode of life, it is extremely difficult to supply them. 
Hunting and fishing afford, at best, a very precarious subsist- 
ence. Throughout the extensive regions of America, popu- | 
lation was found to he most sparsely settled; hut, thin as it ! 
was, it was most wretchedly and scantily supplied with pro- 
visions. Under these circumstances, prisoners of war could 

* See Robertson's America, Phil, ed., vol. 1, p. 197. 
f Ibid., vol. l,pp. 192, 193. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 299 

not be kept, for the feeding f them would be sure to pro- 
; duce a famine.* Tin y would not be sent back to their tribe, 
• for that would strengthen the enemy. Tney could not even 
imake slaves of them, for their labor would have been worth- 
less. Death, then, was, unfortunately, the punishment, which 
was prompted both by interest and revenge. And, accord- 
ingly, throughout the whole continent of America, we find, 
with but one or two exceptions, that this was the dreadful 
fate which awaited the prisoners of all classes, men, women 
and children. In fact, this has been the practice of war, 
wherever man was found in the first stages of society, living 
on the precarious subsistence of the chase. The savages of 
the Islands of Andaman, in the East, supposed by many to 
be lowest in the scale of civilization, of Van Diemen's Land, 
of New Holland, and of the Islands of the South Pacific^ are 
all alike— they all agree in the practice of exterminating ene- 
mies, by the most perfidious and cruel conduct, and, through- 
out many extensive regions, the horrid practice of feasting on 
|the murdered prisoners pre vailed. J 

| * " If a few Spaniards settled in any district, such a small addition 
of supernumerary mouths soon exhausted their scanty store, and brought 
pn famine." — Robertson, p. 182. 

I t Captain Cook says, of the natives in the neighborhood of Queen 
Charlotte's Sound, "If I had followed ihe advice of all our p.eiended 

netuLs 1 might have extirpated the whole race, for the people of each 
hamlet or village, by turns, applied to me to d&stioy the other 

t appears to me that the New Zealandera mast live in peipetual ap- 

reheusion of being destroyed by each other." 
t " Among the Iroquois," says Dr. Robertson, " the phrase by which 
Ihey express their resolution of making war against an enemy is, • let 
M go and eat that nation.' If they so.'ic t the aid of a neighboring 
Vie, they invite it to « eat broth made of the fle.h of then- enemies.' " 
jkmong the Abnakis, according to the « Lrttrea Edif. et Curieuee," the 
jhiet; after dividing his warriors into parties, says to each, * to you is 



300 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

What is there, let us ask, which is calculated to arrest this 
horrid practice, and to communicate an impulse towards civi- 
lization I Strange as it may sound in modern ears, it is the 
institution of property and the existence of slavery. Judging! 
from the universality of the fact, we may assert that domestic 
slavery seems to be the only means of fixing the wanderer to 
the soil, moderating his savage temper, mitigating the horrors 
of war, and abolishing the practice of murdering the captives] 
In the pure hunting state, man has little idea of property] 
and consequently there is little room for distinction, except 
what arises from personal qualities. People in this state re- 
tain, therefore, a high sense of equality and independence. 
It is a singular fact, that the two extremi s of society are most 
favorable to liberty and equality — the most savage, and the 
most refined and enlightened— the former, in consequence of 
the absence of the institution of property, and the latter from ; 
the diffusion of knowledge, and the consequent capability of | 
self-government. The former is characterized by a wild, li- I 
centious independence, totally subversive of all order and 
tranquillity; and the latter by a well-ordered, well-established 
liberty, which, while it leaves to each the enjoyment of the 
fruits of his industry, secures him against the lawless violence 
and rapine of his neighbors. Throughout the whole Ameri- 
can continent, this equality and savage independence seem to 
have prevailed, except in the comparatively great kingdoms 
of Mexico and Peru, where the right to property was estab- 
lished. 

So soon as the private right to property is established, 



given such a hamlet to eat, to you such a village," etc. Captain Cook, 
in his third voyage, says of the New Zealatulers, " Perhaps the desire 
of making a good meal (on prisoners) is no small inducement" to go 
to war. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 301 

slavery commences ; and with the institution of slavery, the 
cruelties of war begin to diminish. The chief finds it to his 
interest to make slaves of his captives, rather than put them 
to death. This system commences with the shepherd state, 
and is consummated in the agricultural. Slavery, therefore] 
seems to be the chief means of mitigating the horrors of war. 
Accordingly, wherever, among barbarous nations, they have 
so far advanced in civilization as to understand the use wlich 
may be made of captives, by converting them into slaves, 
there the cruelties of war are found to be lessened. 

Throughout the whole continent of Africa, in consequence 
of the universal prevalence of slavery, war is not conducted 
with the same barbarous ferocity as by the American Indian. 
And hence it happens that some nations become most ciuel 
to those whom they would most wish to favor. Thus, on the 
borders of Persia, some of the tribes of Tartars massacre all 
the true believers who fall into their hands, but preserve he- 
retics and infidels, because their religion forbids them to make 
slaves of true believers, and allows them to use or sell all 
others, at their pleasure.* 

Id looking to the history of the world, we find that inte- 
rest, and interest alone, has been enabled successfully to war 
against the fiercer passion of revenge. The only instance of 
mildness in war, among the savages of North America, results 
from the operation of interest. Sometimes, when the tribe 
has suffered great loss of numbers, and stands very much in 
need of recruits, the prisoner is saved, and adopted (says Ko- 
bertson) as a member of the nation. Pastoral nations require 
but few slaves, and, consequently, they save but few prisoners 
for this purpose. Agricultural require more, and this state 

* Tacitus tells us that civil wars are always the most cruel, because 
the prisoners are not made slaves. 
26 



302 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

is the most advantageous to slavery. Prisoners of war are 
generally spared by such nations, in consideration of the use 
which may be made of their labor. 

It is carious, in this respect, to contrmj late the varied suc- 
cess with which, under various circumstances, the principle of 
self-interest combats that of vengeance. The barbarians who 
overran the Roman Empire existed principally in the | astoral 
state. They brought along with them their wives and children, 
and consequently they required extensive regions for their sup- 
port, and but few slaves. We rind, accordingly, the y waged a 
most cruel, exterminating war, not even sj firing women and 
children. M Hence," says Dr. Robertson, in bis preliminary vol- 
ume to the History of Charles V., M if a man were called to fix 
upon a period in the history of tlie world, during which the 
condition of the human race was most calamitous and afflicted, 
he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from 
the death of Theodosius the Great, (A.D. 395.) to the reign 
of Alboinus in Lombardy." (A.D. 571.) At the last men- 
tioned epoch, the barbarian inundations spent themselves, and, 
consequently, repose was given to the world. 

Slavery was very common at the siege of Troy ; but, in 
consequeiice of the very rude state of agriculture prevalent in 
those days, and the great reliance placed on the spontaneous 
productions of the earth, the same number of slaves was not 
requ,r<d as in subsequent ages, when agriculture had made 
greater advances. Hence we find the laws of war of a very 
cruel character, the principle of revenge triumphing over 
tvery other. These are the evils, we are informed by Homer, 
that follow the capture of a town : "The men are killtd, the 
city is buna d to the ground, the women and children of all 
ranks are carried off for slaves," (Iliad, L. 9.) Again : 
u Wretch that I am," says the venerabie Priam, " what evil 
does the great Jupiter bring on me in my old age ? JVJy sons 



PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 303 

slain, my daughters dragged into slavery, violence pervading 
even the chambers of my palace, and the very infants dashed 
against the ground, in horrid sport of war. I myself, slain 
in the vain office of defence, shall be the prey of my own 
dogs, perhaps, in the very palace gates I 1 ' (Iliad, L. 22.) 

In after times, during the glorious days of the republics of 
both Greece and Rome, the wants of man had undergone an 
enlargement; agriculture had been pushed to a high state of 
improvement, population became more den-e, and conse- 
quently a more abundant production, aud more regular and 
constant application of labor, became necessary. At this 
period, slaves were in great demand, and, therefore, the pri- 
soners of war were generally spared, in order that they might 
be made slaves. And this mildness did not arise so much 
from their civilization, as from the great demand for slaves. 
All the Roman generals, even the mild Julius, were sufficiently 
cruel to put to death, when they did not choose to make 
slaves of the captives. Hence, as cruel as were the Greeks 
and Romans in war, they were much milder than the sur- 
rounding barbarous nations. In like manner, the wars in 
Africa have been made, perhaps, more mild by the dave trade 
than they would otherwise have been. Instances are fit quent, 
where the prisoner has been immediately put to death, be- 
cause a purchaser could not be found. The report of the 
Lords, in 1 789, speaks of a female captive in Africa, for 
whom an anker of brandy had been offered ; but before the 
messenger arrived, her head had been cut off. Sir George 
Young saved the life of a beautiful boy, about five years old 
at Sierra Leone. The child was about to be thrown into the 
river by the person who had him to sell, because he was too 
young to be an object of trade; but Sir George offered a 
quarter cask of Madeira for him, which was accepted.* A 

* See Edward's West Indies, vol. 2, book 4, chap. 4. 



304 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

multitude of such instances might easily be cited, from com- 
manders of vessels and travellers, who have ever visited 
Africa. And thus do we find, by a review of the history of 
the world, that slavery alone, which addresses itself to the 
principle of self-interest, is capable of overcoming that inor- 
dinate desire of vengeance which glows in the breast of the 
savage; and, therefore, we find the remark made by Voltaire, 
in his Phi. I >;e., that "slavery is as ancient as war, and war 
as human nature," i> not strictly correct: for many ware have 
been too cruel to admit of slavery. 

Let us now close this head, by an inquiry into the justice 
of slavery, flowing from the laws of war. And here we may 
observe, in the first place, that the whole of the ancient world, 
and all nations of modern times verging on a state of bar- 
barism, never for a moment doubted this right All history 
proves that they looked upon slavery as a mild punish- 
ment, in comparison with what they had a right to in- 
flict And, so far from being conscience-stricken, when they 
inflicted the punishment of death or slavery, they seemed to 
glory in the severity of the punishment, and to be remorseful 
only when, from some cause, they had Dot inflicted the worst. 
11 Why so tender-hearted," says Agamemnon to Menelaus, 
seeing him hesitate, while a Trojan of high rank, who had 
the misfortune to be disabled, by being thrown from his cha- 
riot, w -a- 1 egging for life, u are you and your horse so be- 
holden to the Trojans? Let not one of them escape destruc- 
tion from our hands — no, not the child within his mother's 
womb. Let all perish un mourned." And the poet even 
gives his sanction to this inhumanity of Agamemnon, who 
was never characterized as inhuman : 4i It was justly ppoken, 
(says Homer,) and he turned his brother's mind." And the 
suppliant was murdered by the hand of the king of men. 
" When the unfortunate monarch of Troy came to beg the 



PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 305 

body of liis heroic son, ([lector,) we find the conduct of 
Achilles marked by a superior spirit of generosity. Yet, in 
the very act of granting the pious request, he doubts if he is 
quite excusable to the soul of his departed friend, for remit- 
ting the extremity of vengeance which he had meditated, and 
restoring the corse to secure the rites of burial."* To ask 
them, whether men, with notions similar to these, had a right 
to kill or enslave the prisoners, would almost be like gravely 
inquiring into the right of tigers and lions to kill each other, 
and devour the weaker beasts of the forest. If we look to 
the republics of Greece and Rome, in the days of their glory 
and civilization, we shall find no one doubting the right to 
make slaves of those taken in war. "No legislator of anti- 
quity," says Voltaire, "ever attempted to abrogate slavery ; 
on the contrary, the people the most enthusiastic for liberty — 
the Athenians, the Lacedemonians, the Romans, and the Car- 
thagenians — were those who enacted the most severe laws 
against their serfs. Society was so accustomed to this degra- 
dation of the species, that Epictetus, who was assuredly worth 
more than his master, never expresses any surprise at his 
being a slave.' 1 ! Julius Caesar has been reckoned one of the 
mildest and most clement military chieftains of antiquity, and 
yet there is very little doubt, that the principal object in the 
invasion of Britain, was to procure slaves for the Roman slave 
markets. When he left Britain, it became necessary to col- 
lect together a large fleet, for the purpose of transporting his 
captives across the channel. He sometimes ordered the cap- 
tive chiefs to be executed, and he butchered the whole of 
Cato's Senate, when he became master of Utica. Paulus 
Emilius, acting under the special orders of the Roman Senate, 

* See Mitford's Greece, vol. 1, chap. 2, sec. 4. 
t See Philosophical Dictionary, titie " Slaves." 
26* 



306 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

laid all Epirus waste, and brought 150,000 captives in chains 
to Italy, all of whom were sold in the Roman slave markets. 
Augustus Caesar was considered one of the mildest, most 
pacific, and most politic of the Roman Emperors; yet, when 
he rooted out the nation of the Salassii, nn 1 k > dwelt upon the 
Alps, he sold 30,000 persons into slavery. Cato was a large 
owner of slaves, most of whom he had purchased in the slave 
markets at the sale of prisoners of war.* Aristotle, the great- 
est philosopher of antiquity, and a man of as capacious mind 
as the world ever produced, wasa warm advocate of slavery — 
maintaining that it was reasonable, necessary, and natural; 
and, accordingly, in his model of a republic, there were to be 
comparatively few freemen served by many Blaves.f 

\i' we turn from profane history to Holy Writ — that sacred 
fountain whence are derived those pure precepts, and holy 
laws and regulations by which the Christian world has eu-r 
been governed — we shall rind that the children of Israel, under 
tli.- guidance of Jehovah, massacred or enslaved their prison- 
ers of war. So far from considering slavery a curse, they 
considered it a punishment much too mild, and regretted, 
from this cause alone, its infliction. 

The children of Israel, when they marched upon the tribes 
of Canaan, were in a situation very similar to the northern 
invaders who overran the Roman Empire. They had their 
wives and children along with them, and wished to make 
Canaan their abode. Extermination, therefore, became neces- 
sary ; and accordingly, we 6nd that the Gibeonites alone, who 
practised upon the princes of Israel by a fraud, escaped the 
dreadful scene of carnage. They were enslaved, and so far 
from regretting their lot, they seem to have delighted in it ; 
and the children of Israel, instead of mourning over the des- 

* See Plutarch's Lives, Cato the Elder. 
\ Aristotle's Politics, book 1, chap. 4. 



PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 



307 



tiny of the enslaved Gibeonites, murmured that they were 
not massacred — " and all the congregation murmured against 
the princes." Arid the answer of the princes was, " we will 
even let them live, lest wrath be upon us, bt cause of the oath 
which we swear unto them. 1 ' " But let them be hewers of 
wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation, as the 
princes had promised them."* 

But it is needless to multiply instances farther to illustrate 
the ideas of the ancient world in regard to their rights to kill 
or enslave at pleasure the unfortunate captive. Nor will we 
now cite the example of Africa, the great storehouse of slavery 
for the modern world, which so completely sustains our posi- 
tion in regard to the opinions of men on this subject, farther 
than to make an extract from a speech delivered in the Bri- 
tish House of Commons, by Mr. Henniker, in 1789, in which 
the speaker asserts that a letter had been received by George 
III., from one of the most powerful of African potentates, 
the Emperor of Dahomey, which letter admirably exemplifies 
an African's notions about the right to kill or enslave prison- 
ers of war. " lie (Emperor of Dahomey) stated," said Mr. 
II., " that as he understood King George was the greatest of 
white kings, so he thought himself the greatest of black ones. 
He asserted that he could lead 500,000 men armed into the 
field, that being the pursuit to which all his subjects were 
bred, and the women only staying at home to plant and 
manure the earth. He had himself fought two hundred 
and nine battles, with great reputation and success, and had 
conquered the great king of Ardah. The king's head was to 
this dav preserved with the flesh and hair; the heads of his 
generals were distinguished by being placed on eaeh side of 
the doors of their Fetiches ; with the heads of the inferior 
officers they paved the space before the doors ; and the heads 
* See 9th chapter of Joshua. 



308 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

of the common soldiers formed a sort of fringe or outwork 
round the walls of the palace. Since this war, be had expe- 
rienced the greatest good fortune, and he hoped in good 
time to be able to complete the out walls of all his great 
houses, to the number of sewn, in the same manner.*'* 

Mr. Norris, who visited this empire in 1772, actually testi- 
fies to the truth of this letter. He found the palace of the 
Emperor an immense assemblage of cane and mud tents, 
enclosed by a high wall. The skulls and jaw bones of ene- 
mies slain in battle, formed the favorite ornaments of the 
palaces and temples. The king's apartmeBta were paved, and 
the walls and roof stuck over with these horrid trophies. 
And if a farther supply appeared at any time desirable, he 
announced to his general, that " his house wanted thatch,* 1 
when a war tor that purpose was immediately undertaken.! 
Who can for a moment be so absurd as to imagine that sueh 
a prince as this could doubt of his right to make slaves in 
war. when he gloried in being able to thatch his houses with 
the heads of his enemies . ; Who could doubt that any thing 
else than a strong sense of interest, would ever put an end to 
Buch barbarity and ferocity ? Our limits will not allow us to 
be more minute, however interesting the subject. 

And, therefore, we will now examine into the right, accord- 
ing to the law of nations — the strict jus gentium — and we 
shall find all the writers agree in the justice of slavery, under 
certain circumstances. Grotius says that, as the law of na- 
ture permits prisoners of war to be killed, so the same law 
has introduced the right of making them slaves, that the 
captors, in view to the benefit arising from the labor or sale 
of their prisoners, might be induced to spare them.J From 

* See Haz^itz's British Eloquence, vol. 2. 
•f- See Family Library, No. 16, p. 199. 
\ L 3, chap. 7, sec. 5. 4 Book 6, chap. 3. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 309 

; the general practice of nations before the time of Puffendorf, 
! he came to the conclusion that slavery has been established 
i " by the free consent of the opposing parties."* 

Rutherforth, in his Institutes, says, " since all the members 
; of a nation, against which a just war is made, are bound to 
J repair the damages that gave occasion to the war, or that 
are done in it, and likewise to make satisfaction for the ex- 
penses of carrying it on ; the law of nations will allow those 
who are prisoners to be made slaves by the nation which takes 
them ; that so their labor, or the price for which they are 
sold, may discharge these demands." But he most powerful- 
ly combats the more cruel doctrine laid down by Grotius, that 
the master has a right to take away the life of his slave. 
Bynkershoek contends for the higher right of putting prison- 
ers of war to death : " We may, however, (enslave,) if we 
please," he adds, " and indeed we do sometimes still exercise 
that right upon those who enforce it against us. Therefore 
the Dutch are in the habit of selling to the Spaniards as 
slaves, the Algerines, Tunisians, and Tripolitans, whom they 
take prisoners in the Atlantic or Mediterranean. Nay, in the 
year 1661, the States General gave orders to their admiral to 
sell as slaves all the pirates that he should take. The same 
thin w was done in 1664"f Vattel, the most humane of all 
the standard authors on national law, asks — " are prisoners of 
war to be made slaves ?" To which he answers, " Yes ; in 
cases which give a right to kill them, when they have ren- 
dered themselves personally guilty of some crime deserving 
death."J Even Locke, who has so ably explored all the facul- 
ties of the mind, and who so nobly stood forth against the 
monstrous and absurd doctrines of Sir Robert Filmer, and the 

* Book, chap. 9, sec. 11. 

t Treatise on the Law of War, Du Ponceau's Ed. p. 21. 

\ See Law of Nations, book 3, chap. 8, sec. 152. 



310 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

passive submissionhts of his day, admits the right to mate 
slaves of prisoners whom we might justly have killed. Speak- 
ing of a prisoner who has forfeited his lit'.-, he says, *' he to 
whom he has forfeited it may, when he has him in his power, 
d 'lay to take it, and make use of him to his own service, and 
he does him no injury b) it."* Blackstone, it would seem, 
denies the right to make prisoners of war slaves; for he says 
we had no right to enslave, unless we had the right to kill, 
and we had no right to kill, unless " in cases of absolute ne- 
cessity, ^or self-defence ; and it is plain this ab : olute necessity 
did not subsist, si ace the victor did not actually kill him, but 
made him prisoner."! Upon this we have to remark, 1st, 
that Judge Blackstone here speaks of slavery in its pure, un- 
mitigated form, "whereby an unlimited power is given to the 
master over the life and fortune of the slave. "J Slavery 
scarcely exists any where in this form, ami if it did, it would 
be a continuance of a state of war, as Rousseau justly ob- 
serves, b -tween the captive and the captor. Again: Black- j 
stone, in his argument upon this subject, seems to misunder- i 
stand the grounds upon which civilians place the justification I 
of slavery, as arising from the laws of war. It is well known 
that most of the horrors of war spring from the principle of! 
retaliation, and not, as Blackstone supposes, universally from 
"absolute necessity." If two civilized nations of modern 
times are at war, and one hangs up, without any justifiable 
cause, all of the enemy who fall into its possession, the other 
does not hesitate to inflict the same punishment upon an equal! 
number of its prisoners. It is the " lex talionis" and not the 
absolute necessity, which gives rise to this. 

The colonists of this country up to the revolution, during,} 

* On Civil Government, chap. 6. 

f See Tucker's Blacks tone, vol. 2, p. 423. 

\ Blackstone's Commentaries, in loco citato. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 311 

, and even since that epoch, have put to death the Indian cap- 

I lives, whenever the Indians had been in the habit of massacre- 

jing indiscriminately. It was not so much absolute necessity 

as the law of retaliation, which justified this practice; and, the 

civilians urge that the greater right includes the lesser; and, 

a consequently, the right to kill involves the more humane and 

Imore useful right of enslaving. In point of fact, it would 

seem that the Indians were often enslaved by the colonists.* 

Although we find no distinct mention made, by any of the 

histoiians, of the particular manner in which this slavery 

' arose, yet it is not difficult to infer that it must have arisen 

| from the laws of war, being a commutation of the puni>h- 

I ment of death for slavery. Again : If the nation with which 

you are at war makes slaves of all your citizens falling into its 

< possession, surely you have the right to retaliate and do so 

I likewise. It is the " lex talinnis" and not absolute necessity, 

I which justifies you; and, if you should choose from policy to 

I waive your right, your ability to do so would not, surely, 

I prove that you had no right at all to enslave. Such a doc- 

1 trine as this would prove that the rights of belligerents were 

I in the inverse ratio of their strength — a doctrine which, push- 

l ed to the extreme, would always reduce the hostile parties to 

] a precise equality — which is a perfect absurdity. If we were 

| to suppose a civilized nation in the heart of Africa, sur- 

i rounded by such princes as the King of Dahomey, there is no 

[ doubt that such a nation would be justifiable in killing or 

| enslaving at its option, in time of war, and if it did neither, 

i it would relinquish a perfect ugJtt.\ We have now consi- 

* See Tucker's Blackstone, vol 2, Appendix, note H. 

t We shall hereafter see that our colony at Liberia may, at some 

; future day, be placed in an extremely embarrassing condition from 

this very cause. It may not in future wars have stiength sufficient 

, to forego the exercise of the right of killing or enslaving, and if it 



312 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

dered the most fruitful source of slavery — laws of war — and 
shall proceed mure briefly to the consideration of the other 
thive which we have mentioned, taking- up — 

2. State of Property and Feebleness of Government. — In 
tracing- the manneis and customs of a people v\ho have 
emerged from a state of barbarism, and examining into the 
nature and character of their institutions, we rind it of the 
first importance to look to the condition of property, in order 
that we may conduct our inquiries with judgment and know- 
ledge. The character of the government, in spite of all its 
forms, depends more on the condition of property, than on 
any one circumstance beside. The relations which the diffe- 
rent classes of society bear towards each other, the distinction 
into high and low, noble and plebeian, in fact, depend almost 
exclusively upon the state of property. It may be with 
truth affirmed, that the exclusive owners of the property ever 
have been, ever will, and perhaps ever ought to be, the vir- 
tual rulers of mankind. If, then, in any age or nation, there 
should be but one species of property, and that should be 
exclusively owned by a portion of citizens, that portion would 
become inevitably the masters of the residue. And if the 
government should be so feeble as to leave each one, in a 
great measure, to protect himself, this circumstance would 
have a tendency to throw the property into the hands of a 
few, who would rule with despotic sway over the many. And 
this was the condition of Europe during the middle ages, 
under what was termed the feudal system. There was, in 
fact, but one kind of property, and that consisted of land* 
Nearly all the useful arts had perished — commerce and manu- 
factures could scarcely be said to exist at all, and a daik night 

have the strength, it may not have the mildness and humanity. Re- 
venge is sweet, and the murder of a brother or father, and the slavery 
of a mother or sister, will not easily be forgotten. 



PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 313 

of universal ignorance enshrouded the human mind. The 
landholders of Europe, the feudal aristocrats, possessing all 
the property, necessarily and inevitably as fate itself, usurped 
all the power ; and in consequence of the feebleness of gov- 
ernment, and the resulting necessity that each one should do 
justice for himself, the laws of primogeniture and entails were 
resorted to as a device to prevent the weakening of families 
by too great a subdivision or alienation of property, and from 
the same cause, small allodial proprietors were obliged to 
give up their small estates to some powerful baron or large 
landholder, in consideration of protection, which he would be 
unable to procure in any other manner.* Moreover, the 
great landholders of those days had only one way of spend- 
ing their estates, even when they were not barred by entails, 
and that was by employing a large number of retainers — for 
they could not then spend their estates as spendthrifts gene- 
rally squander them, in luxuries and manufactures, in conse- 
quence of the rude state of the arts— a'l the necessities of 
man being supplied directly from the farms ;f and the great 
author of the Wealth of Nations has most philosophically 
remarked, that few great estates have been spent from bene- 
volence alone. And the people of those days could find no 
employment except on the land, and, consequently, were 
entirely dependant on the landlords, subject to their caprices 
and whims, paid according to their pleasure, and entirely 

* Upon this subject, see Robertson's 1st vol. Hist. Charles V.. Hal- 
lam's Middle Ages, Gilbert Stuart on the Progress of Society, and all 
the write; s on feudal tenures. 

t" There is not a vestige to be discovered, for several centuries, of 
any considerable manufactures Rich men kept domestic arti- 
sans among their servants; even kings, in the ninth centur}', had their 
clothes made by the women upon their farms." — Hallam's Middle 
Ages, voL 2, pp. 280, 261, Pbilad. edition. 
21 



314 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

under their control ; in fine, they were slaves complete. Even 
the miserable cities of the feudal times were not independent, 
but wore universally subjected to the barons or great land- 
holders, whose powerful protection against the lawless rapine 
of the times, could only be purchased by an entire surrender 
of liberty.* 

Thus the property of the feudal ages was almost exclusive- 
ly of oik- kind. The feebleness of government, toe-ether with 
the laws of primogeniture and entails, threw that property in- 
to the hands of a few, and the difficulty of alienation, caused 
by the absence of all other species of property, had a ten- 
dency to prevent that change of possession which we so con- 
stantly witness in modern times. Never was there, then, 
perhaps, so confirmed and so permanent an aristocracy as 
that of the feudal ages ; it naturally sprang from the condi- 
tion of property and the obstacles to its alienation. The aris- 
tocracy alone embraced in those days the freemen of Europe; 
all the rest were slaves, call them by what name you please,, 
and doomed by the unchanging laws of nature, to remain so, 
till commerce and manufactures had arisen, and with them 
had s irung into existence a new class of capitalists, the tiers 
etat of Europe, whose existence first called for new forms of 
government, and whose exertions either have or will revolu- 
tionize the whole of Europe. A revolution in the state of 
property is always a premonitory symptom of a revolution in 
government and in the state of society, and without the one 
you cannot meet with permanent success in the other. The [ 
slave of southern Europe could never have been emancipated, | 
except through the agency of commerce and manufactures, 
and the consequent rapid rise of cities, accompanied with a t 
more regular and better protected industry, producing a vast , 
augmentation in the products which administer to our neces- j 
* Upon this subject. seeboth Hallam raid Robertson. 



PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 315 

sities and comforts, and increasing, in a proportionate degree, 
the sphere of our wants and desires. In the same way we shall 
show, before bringing this article to a close, that if the slaves 
of our southern country shall ever be liberated, and suffered 
to remain among us, with their present limited wants and 
longing desire for a state of idleness, they will fall, inevitable, 
by the nature of things, into a state of slavery, from which 
no government could rescue them, unless by a radical change 
of all their habits, and a most awful and fearful change in the 
whole system of property throughout the country. The state 
' of property, then, may fairly be considered a very fruitful 
I source of slavery. It was the most fruitful source during the 
< feudal ages — it is the foundation of slavery throughout the 
north-eastern regions of Europe and the populous countries of 
the continent of Asia. We are even disposed to think, con- 
I trary to the general opinion, that the condition of property 
j operated prior to the customs of war in the production of 
slavery. We are fortified in this opinion, by the example of 
Mexico and Peru in South America. In both of these empires, 
I certainly the farthest advanced and most populous of the new 
[ world, " private property," says Dr. Robertson, "was perfectly 
understood, and established in its full extent." The most 
abject slavery existed in both these countries; and what still 
farther sustains our position, it very nearly, especially in 
Mexico, resembled that of the feudal ages. " The great body 
of the people was in a most humiliating state. A considera- 
ble number, known by the name of Mayeques, nearly resem- 
bling the condition of those peasants who, under various 
denominations, were considered, during the prevalence of the 
feudal system, as instruments of labor attached to the soil. 
Others were reduced to the lowest form of subjection, that of 
domestic servitude, and felt the utmost rigor of that wretched 
state."* 

* Robertson's America, pp. 105, 10*7. 



316 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

Now, slavery in both these countries, must have arisen 
from the state of property, for the laws of war are entirely 
too cruel to admit of captives among the Mexicans. " They 
fought," says Dr. Robertson, " to gratify their vengeance, by 
shedding the blood of their enemies — no captive was ever 
ransomed or spared."* And the Peruvians, though much 
milder in war, seem not to have made slaves of their captives, 
though we must confess that there is great difficulty in ex- 
plaining their great comparative clemency to prisoners in war, 
unless by supposiog they were made slaves.f We have no 
doubt, likewise, if we could obtain sufficient insight into the 
past history and condition of Africa, that slavery would be 
found to have arisen in many of those countries, rather from 
the state of property than the laws of war; for even to this 
day, many of the African princes are too cruel and sanguinary 
in war to forego the barbarous pleasure of murdering the 
captives, and yet slavery exists in their dominions to its full 
extent. 

We will not here pause to examine into the justice or in- 
justice of that species of slavery, which is sure to arise from 
a faulty distribution of property, because it is the inevitable 
result of the great law of necessity, which itself has no law, 
and, consequently, about which it is utterly useless to argue. 
We will, therefore, proceed at once to the third cause assigned 
for slavery — bargain and sale. 

3. Cause of Slavery, Bargain and Sale. — This source of 
slavery might easily be reduced to that which depends on the 

* Robertson's America, vol. 2, p. 114. 

| We are sorry we have not the means of satisfactorily investiga- 
ting this subject If slavery was established among them from the 
laws of war, it would be one of the most triumphant examples which 
history affords of the effect of slavery, in mitigating the cruelties of 
war ; for it is a singular fact, that the Peruvians were the only people 
in the new world who did not murder their prisoners. 



FE0FESS0R DEW OX SLAVERY. 31 Y 

state of property, but for the pake of perspicuity, we prefer 
keeping them apart. Adam Smith has well observed, that 
there is a strong propensity in man " to truck, barter, and 
exchange, one thing for another," and both the parties gene- 
rally intend to derive an advantage from the exchange. This 
disposition seems to extend to every thing susceptible of being- 
impressed with the character of property or exchangeable 
value, or from which any great or signal advantage may be 
derived— it has been made to extend, at times, to life and 
liberty. Generals, in time of war, have pledged their lives 
for the performance of their contracts. At the conclusion of 
peace, semi-barbarous nations have been in the habit of inter- 
changing hostages — generally the sons of princes and noble- 
men — for the mutual observance of treaties, whose lives were 
forfeited by a violation of the plighted faith ; and in all ages, 
where the practice has not been interdicted by law, indivi- 
duals have occasionally sold their own liberty, or that of 
others dependent on them. We have already seen how the 
small allodial possessors, during the feudal ages, were obliged 
to surrender their lands and liberty to some powerful baron, 
fur that protection which could be procured in no other man- 
ner. Throughout the whole ancient world, the sale of one's 
own liberty, and even that of his children, was common. The 
non-payment of debts, or failure to comply with contracts, 
frequently subjected the unfortunate offender to slavery, in 
both Greece and Rome. Instances of slavery from bargain 
and sale, occur in Scripture. Joseph was sold to the Ishmael- 
ites for twenty pieces of silver, arid carried down to Egypt in 
slavery. But this was a black and most unjustifiable act on 
the part of his envious b'Others. There are other parts of 
Scripture, where the practice of buying and selling slaves 
seems to be justified. The Hebrew laws permitted the sell- 
ing of even the Jews into slavery for six years. " If thou 
27* 



318 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve, and in the 
seventh he shall go out free for nothing." And if the ser- 
vant chose, at the expiration of six years, to remain with his 
master as a slave, he might do so on having his ear bored 
through with an awl. It seems fathers could se.l their chil- 
dren — thus : " And if a man sell his daughter to be a maid 
servant, she shall not go out as the men servants do."* An 
unlimited right to purchase slaves from among foreigners 
seems to have been granted, whether they had been slaves or 
not before the purchase ; thus, in the twenty-fifth chapter of 
Leviticus, we find the following injunction : " Both thy bond- 
men and bondmaids which thou shalt have, shall be of the 
heathen that are round about you ; of them shall ye buy 
bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover, of the children of 
strangers who sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and 
of the families that are with you, which they begat in your 
land; and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take 
them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit 
them for a possession ; they shall be your bondmen for ever T\ 
We may well suppose that few persons would ever be induced 
to sell themselves or children into slavery, unless under very 
severe pressure from want. Accordingly, we find the prac- 
tice most prevalent among the most populous and the most 
savage nations, where the people are most frequently subjected 
to dearths and famines. Thus, in Hindustan and China, 
there is nothing more frequent than this practice of selling 
liberty. " Every year," said a Jesuit who resided in Hindos- 
tan, " we baptize a thousand children whom their parents can 
no longer feed, or who being likely to die, are sold to us by 
their mothers, in order to get rid of them." The great legis- 
lator of Ilindostan, Menu, in his ordinances, which are de- 
scribed by Sir William Jones, justifies this practice in time of 
* See 2 1st chapter of Exodus. t 44, 45, and 46 verses. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 819 

I scarcity. " Ajigarta," says Menu, in one of his ordinances, 

i " dying- with hunger, was going to destroy his own son by 

j selling him for some cattle ; yet he was guilty of no crime, 

for he only sought a remedy against famishing." *• In China," 

says Duhakle, "a man sometimes sells his son, and even him- 

i self and wife, at a very moderate price. The common mode 

. is to mortgage themselves with a condition of redemption, 

I and a great number of men and maid servants are thus bound 

j in a family." There is no doubt but at this moment, in 

I every densely populated country, hundreds would be willing 

; to sell themselves into slavery if the laws would permit them, 

whenever they were pressed by famine. Ireland seems to be 

I the country of modern Europe most subjected to these dread- 

j ful visitations. Suppose, then, we reverse the virion of the 

Kentucky Senator,* and imagine that Ireland could be severed 

during those periods of distress from the Britannic isle, and 

i could float, like the fabled island of Delos, across the ocean, 

and be placed by our side, and our laws should inhumanely 

forbid a single son of Erin from entering our territory, unless 

j as a slave, to be treated exactly like the African, is there any 

I man, acquainted with the state of the Irish, in years of scar- 

I city, who would doubt for a moment, but that thousands, 

much as this oppressed people are in love with liberty, would 

enter upon this hard condition, if they could find purchasers. 

Indeed, the melancholy fact has too often occurred in Ireland, 

j of individuals committing crimes merely for the purpose of 

being thrown into the houses of correction, where they could 

obtain bread and water ! 

Among savages, famines are much more dreadful than 

among civilized nations, where they are provided against by 

previous accumulation and commerce. Dr. Robertson has 

given us a glowing, and no doubt, correct picture, of the 

* Mr. Clay, in the debate on his resolutions on the tariff, 1832. 



320 PROFESSOR PEW OX SLAVERY. 

dreadful ravages of famine among the North American In- 
dian-, and on such occasions, we are informed by the *' Lettres 
Edifiantes et Curieuse," that the tics of nature arc no lo 
binding. A father will sell his son for a knife or hatchet* 
But, unfortunately, among savages in the hunting state, 
scarcely any one can do more than maintain himself and one 
or two children, and therefore cannot afford to keep a slave. 

If we turn to Africa, we Bhall find this cause of slaverf 
frequently operating with all its power; and, aecordii 
Parke lias ranked famine as the second among the four caused 
which he assigns for slavery in Africa. "There are many 
instances of fre< men," Bays he, "voluntarily surrendering up 
their liberty to Bave their lives. During a great scarcity^ 
which lasted for three years, in the countries of the Gambia, 
great numbers of people b came slaves in this manner. ]>r. 
Laidley assured me, that at that time, many freemen came 
and begged with greal earnestm put vpon his alavt 

chain, to Bave them from perishing with hunger. Large 
families are very often exposed to absolute want, and as the 
parents have almost unlimited authority over their children, it 
frequently happens in all parts of Africa, that some of the 
latter are Bold to purchase provisions for the rest of the family. 
When 1 was at Jarra, Damon Jumma pointed out tome 
three young Blaves which he had purchased in this manner."f 
Bruce, in his travels in Africa, saw whole villages and districts 
of country depopulated by the famines which had visited 
them, and gives us a most appalling picture of the walking 
skeletons and lawless rapine which wove every where exhibited 
during those frightful periods of distress. We cannot wonder, 
then, under these circumstances, that famine should be a 

* Tom. 8. 

f Parke's Travels in Africa, chap. 22, p. 216, N. Y. ed. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 321 

fruitful source of slavery, by giving rise to a sale of liberty 
for the preservation of life. 

The remark of Judge Blackstone, as to this kind of slavery, 
is known to every one — that every sale implies a " quid pro 
quo''' — but that, in the case of slavery, there can be no equi- 
valent, no quid pro quo — for nothing is an equivalent for 
liberty ; and even the purchase money, or the price, whatever 
it might be, would instantly belong to the master of the 
slave.* Upon this we w ? ould remark, that Blackstone seems 
to have his attention fixed exclusively on those countries 
where every man can easily maintain himself, and where, con- 
sequently, his life can never be in jeopardy from want. If 
there is any country in the world to which this argument will 
apply, that country is ours. We believe every man here may 
obtain a subsistence, either by his own exertions, or by the 
aid of the poor rates. But this is far from being the case 
with semi-barbarous or densely populated countries. Again : 
Blackstone alludes to that pure state of slavery, where a 
man's life, liberty, and property, are at the mercy of his mas- 
ter. That is far from being the condition of slavery now. 
In most parts of the world the slave is carefully protected in 
life, limb, and even in a moderate share of liberty, by the 
policy of the laws ; and his nourishment and subsistence are 
positively enjoined. Where this is the case, we can imagine 
many instances in which liberty might have an equivalent. 
Who for a moment can doubt but that the abundant daily 
supplies of subsistence, consisting of wholesome meat, bread, 
and frequently vegetables and refreshing drinks besides, which 
are furnished to our slaves, are more than an equivalent for 
the liberty of the Chinese laborer, who exhausts himself with 
hard labor — feeds on his scanty and unseasoned rice — tastes 
do wholesome meat from the beginning to the end of the 
* Tucker's Blackstone, vol. 2, p. 423. 



322 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

toilsome year — sees his family frequently perishing before bis 
eyes, or more cruel still, consents himself to be the execu- 
tioner, in order that he may release them from the intolerable 
torments of unsatisfied wants, and who, even in seasons of 
ordinary supply, fishes up with eagerness the vilest garbage 
from the river or canal, and voraciously devours meat whichi 
with us, would be left to be fed on by the vultures of the air. 
The fact is, the laborer in this hard condition is already a 
slave, or rather in a situation infinitely worse than slavery — 
he is subjected to all the hardships and degradation of the 
slave, and derives none of the advantages. In tlie case of 
famine, the equivalent seems to be life for liberty ; and when 
this is the case, although the philosopher may consider 
death as preferable to slavery, "yet," savs Parke, "the poor 
negro, when fainting- with hunger, thinks, like Esau of old, 
' behold lam at the point to die, and what profit .shall this 
birthright do to meP n The reason why ] ersons do not more 
frequently sell themselves into slavery is, because they are 
forbidden by tin.' laws, or can find no purchasers. So far 
from persons not selling their liberty ' there is no 

equivalent, it is directly the contrary in most countries ; the 
price or equivalent, consisting of continued support, protec- 
tion, Arc, is too great — more than can be afforded. The capi- 
talist in Great Britain could not afford to purchase the opera- 
tive, and treat him as we do the slave ; the price paid, the 
quid pro quo of Blackstone, would be more than the liberty 
would be worth. \Ye have no doubt, if the English laws 
were to allow of slavery, such as we have in this country, 
there would be many more persons wishing to sell their 
liberty than of those wishing- to buy! But whether the re- 
marks of Judge Blackstone are correct in theory or not, is a 
matter of no practical importance ; for, in point of fact, as we 
have shown by undeniable testimony, bargain and sale have 



rR©FESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 323 

ever been a most fruitful source of slavery in ancient time c , 

and among- many people of the present day ; and, conse- 

1 quently, we could not pretermit it in a general survey of the 

! sources of slavery. "We shall now proceed to a consideration 

1 of the last mentioned source of slavery. 

4. Crime. — All governments, even those of the states of 
our confederacy, have ever been considered as perfectly justi- 
| fiable in enslaving for crime. All our penitentiaries are 
; erected upon this principle, and slavery in them, of the most 
; abject and degrading character, endures for a certain number 
I of months, years, or for life, according to the offence. In 
J South America and Russia, the criminals are frequently sen- 
! tenced to slavery in the mines, and in France and England, 
■ to the gallies and work-houses ; but as it is principally with 
, domestic slavery that we are concerned in this article, we 
I shall not consider farther that which is of a public character. 
Throughout the ancient world, domestic slavery, arising 
I from crime, seems to have been very common. W^e have 
already spoken of the slavery which was inflicted frequently 
on insolvent debtors in both Greece and Rome. In Africa, 
too, we find insolvency a very frequent source of slavery. 
" Of all the offences,' 1 says Parke, " if insolvency may be so 
called, to which the laws of Africa have affixed the punish- 
ment of slavery, this is the most common. A negro trader 
commonly contracts debts on some mercantile speculation, 
either from his neighbors to purchase such articles as will sell 
to advantage in a distant market, or from the European 
traders on the coast — pajment to be made in a given time. 
In both cases, the situation of the adventurer is exactly the 
same : if he succeeds, he may secure an independency ; if he 
is unsuccessful, his person and services are at the disposal of 
another ; for, in Africa, not only the effects of the insolvent, 
but the insolvent himself, is sold to satisfy the lawful demands 



324 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

of his creditors."* Insolvency, however, is, after all, rather 
a misfortune than a crime ; and we rank it here as a crime, 
mure in deference to the institutions of the ancients, and the 
customs of certain modern nations, than as an indication of 
our own sentiments — for we are decidedly of opinion, that 
slavery is much too high a penalty to be attached to what, in 
many cases, is sheer misfortune. But, besides insolvency, the 
laws ot Africa affix slavery as a punishment to the crimes of 
murder, adultery, and witchcraft. In case of murder, the 
nearest relation of the murdered, after conviction, may either 
kill or sell into slavery, at his option. In adultery, the 
ohYnded party may enslave or demand a ransom at pleasure ; 
and as to witchcraft, Parke not having met with any trial for 
this offence, could only assure us that it was the source of 
slavery, though not common.f We have now surveyed the 
principal sources of slavery, and although we do not pretend 
to be minute and complete in the division which we have 
made, we hope we have said enough upon this branch to 
show that slavery is inevitable in the progress of society, 
from its first and most savag-e state, to the last and most 
refined. We started out with announcing the fact, startling 
to those who have never reflected upon the subject, that 
slavery existed throughout the whole of the ancient, and in a 
very large portion of the modern world. We have farther 
shown by the preceding reasoning, that this was no accident, 
the mere result of chance, but was a necessary and inevitable 
consequence of the principles of human nature and the state 
of property. We shall now proceed to inquire briefly into 
the advantages which have resulted to mankind from the 
institution of slavery. 

Advantages ivhich have resulted to the world from the in- 

* Parke's Travels in Africa, p. 216. 
f Parke's Travels, p. 217. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 325 

stitution of slavery. — When we turn our thoughts from this 
world " of imperfections" to the God of nature, we love to 
contemplate Him as perfect and immaculate, and amid all the 
I divine attributes with which we delight to clothe Him, none 
j stands more conspicuous than his benevolence. To look upon 
! Him in this light, may be said to be almost the impulse of 
, an instinct of our nature, and the most enlarged experience 
! and perfect knowledge combine in fortifying and strengthen- 
ing this belief. Accordingly, when we look abroad to the 
works of Omnipotence, when we contemplate the external, 
the physical world, and again, when we turn to the world of 
mind, we never find evil the sole object and end of creation. 
Happiness is always the main design ; evil is merely inciden- 
tal. All the laws of matter, every principle, and even passion 
of man, when rightly understood, demonstrate the general be- 
nevolence of the Deity, even in this world. '' It is, perhaps," 
says Mr. Allison, " the most striking and the most luminous fact 
in the history of our intellectual nature, that that principle of 
curiosity which is the instinctive spring of all scientific inquiry 
into the phenomena of matter or mind, is never satisfied until 
it terminates in the discovery, not only of design, but of be- 
nevolent design." Well, then, might we have concluded, 
from the fact that slavery was the necessary result of the laws 
of mind and matter, that it marked some benevolent design, 
and ivas intended by our Creator for some useful purpose. 
Let us inquire, then, what that useful purpose is, and we have 
no hesitation in affirming that slavery has been, perhaps, the 
principal means for impelling forward the civilization of man- 
kind. Without its agency, society must have remained sunk 
into that deplorable state of barbarism and wretchedness 
which characterized the inhabitants of the Western World, 
when first discovered by Columbus. 

We have already spoken of the great advantage of slavery 
28 



326 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

in mitigating the horrors of savage warfare ; but not only is 
this most desirable effect produced, but it has a farther ten- 
dency to cheek the frequency of war, and to destroy that 
migratory spirit in nations and tribes, so destructive to the 
peace and tranquillity of the world. Savages, living in the 
hunting state, must have an extensive range of country, for 
the supply of the wants of even a few persons. " Hence," 
says Dr. Robertson, "it is of the utmost importance to pre- 
vent neighboring tribes from destroying or disturbing the 
game in their hunting grounds, they guard this national pro- 
perty with a jealous attention. But as their territories are 
extensive, and the boundaries of them not exactly ascertained, 
innumerable subjects of disputes arise, which seldom termi- 
nate without bloodshed."* Uncertain boundaries, constant 
roaming through the forests, in search of game, and all the 
unchecked and furious passions of the savage, lead on to 
constant and exterminating wars among the tribes. What, 
then, let us ask, can alone prevent this constant scene of 
strife and massacre \ Nothing but that which can bind them 
down to the soil, which can establish homes and ji csides, 
which can change the wandering character of tin- savage, and 
make it his inter, st to cultivate peace instead of war. Slav* ry 
produces these effects. It m c< Bsarilj U ads on to the taming and 
rearing of numerous flock.-, and to the cultivation of the soil. 
Hunting can never support slavery. Agriculture first sug- 
gests the notion of servitude, and, as often happens in the 
politico-cconcmical world, the effect becomes, in turn, a pow- 
erfully operating cause. Slavery gradually fells the forest, 
and thereby destroys the haunts of the wild beasts ; it gives 
rise to agricultural production, and thereby renders mankind 
less dependent on the precarious and diminishing production 

* History of Amor.'ca, \ol 1, p. 192. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 32 7 

of the chase; it thus gradually destroys the roving and un- 
quiet life of the savage ; it furnishes a home, and binds him 
down to the soil ; it converts the idler and the wanderer into 
the man of business and the agriculturist 

If we look to the condition of Africa, and compare it with 
that of the American Indians, we shall find a complete illus- 
tration of these remarks, and Africa, as we shall soon see, 
would enjoy a much greater exemption from war, if it were 
not for the slave trade, whose peculiar operation we shall 
presently notice. 

But, secondly, the labor of the slave, when slavery is first 
introduced, is infinitely more productive than that of the 
freeman. Dr. Robertson, in his lli&tory of America, speaks 
of the acquisition of dominion over the inferior animals, as a 
step of capital importance in the progress of civilization. It 
may with truth be affirmed, that the taming of man and ren- 
dering him tit for labor, is more important than the taming 
and using the inferior animals, and nothing seems so well cal- 
culated to effect this as slavery. Savages have ever been 
found to be idle and unproductive, except in the chase. "The 
aborigines of North America resembled rather beasts of prey," 
says Dr. Robertson, " than animals formed for labor. They 
were not only averse from toil, but seemed at first entirely 
incapable of it. There is nothing which so completely proves 
the general indolence and inactivity of the Indian, as their 
very moderate appetites. Their constitutional temperance 
exceeded that of the most mortified hermits, and the appe- 
tites of the Spaniards (generally reckoned very temperate in 
Europe) appeared to the natives insatiably voracious, and 
they affirmed that one Spaniard devoured, in a day, more 
food than was enough for ten Indians.* 

* Robertson's x\meiica, vol. l.book 4. 



328 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVEKV. 

The improvidence and utter ' the Bavage are 

noticed, too, by all the historians. "They follow blindly," 

>n, 4> the impulse of the appetite which they feel, 
Lut are entirely regardless of distant consequences, and even 
of those removed in th - i immediate ap 

hension. When, on the h of evening, a Carabee feels 

himself disposed to go to rest, deration will tempt 

him to sell his hammock ; hut in the morning, when he is 
sallying out to the business or pastime of the day, he will 
part with it for the slightest toy that catches his fancy. At 
of winter, while the impression of what he has Buf- 
fered from tii«- rigor of the climate is fresh in the mind of the 
North American, besets himself with vigor to prepare i 
rials for erecting a comfortable hut. to protect him against the 
inclemency of the succeeding season; bi »n as the 

mes mild, he forgets what is past, abandons his 

D I 

work, and never thinks of it more, until the return of cold 
compels him, when too late, to r< sume it."* There is nothing 
but slavery which can destroy those habits of indolence and 
sloth, and eradicate the character of improvidence and i 
lessness, which mark the independent savage. He may truly 
ma pared to the wild beast of the forest — he must be 
broke and tamed, before he fit for labor, and for the 

task of rearing and providing for a family. There is nothing 
but slavery that can effect this ; the mean- may appear ex- 
ceedingly harsh and cruel, and, as among wild beasts, many 
may die in the pro I ming and subjugating, bo among 

savages, many may not be able to stand the hardships of ser- 
vitude ; but, in the end, it leads on to a milder and infinitely 
better condition than that of savage independence, gives rise 
to greater production, increases the provisions in nature's 

* History of America, vol. 1, pp. 170, 171. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 329 

great storehouse, and invites into existence a mere numerous 
population, better fed and better provided, and thus gives rise 
to socVty. and, consequently, speeds on more rapidly the 
cause of civilization. But upon this great, this delicate and 
ill-important subject, we wish to risk no vain theori >s, no un- 
founded conjectures— from beginning to end, we shall speak 
Conscientiously, and never knowingly plant in our bosom a 
thorn which may rankle there. Let us, then, see whether 
the above assertions may not be satisfactorily proved, para- 
doxical as they may at first appear, by fact and experience. 
If we turn to the Western World, where an ample field is 
presented for the contemplation of man, in his first and rudest 
state, we find tint slavery existed nowhere throughout the 
American continent, except in Peru and Mexico, and these 
were decidedly the most flourishing portions of this vast con- 
tinent, " When compared," says Dr. Robertson, " with other 
parts of the New World, Mexico and Peru may be considered 
as polUhed states. Instead of small, independent, hostile tribes, 
struggling for subsistence amidst woods and marshes, stran- 
gers to industry and arts, unacquainted with subordination, 
and almost without the appearance of regular government, 
we find countries of great extent subjected to the dominion of 
one sovereign, the inhabitants collected together in cities, the 
wisdom and foresight of rulers employed in providing for the 
maintenance and security of the people, the empire of laws 
in some measure established, the authority of religion recog- 
nized, many of the arts essential to life brought to some de- 
gree of maturity, and the dawn of such as are ornamental 
beginning to appear."* 

Again: In the Islands of the South Sea, Captain Cook was 
astonished at the populousness of Otaheite and the Society 

* Robertson's America, vol. 2, page 101. 
28* 



330 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

Islands. Slavery seems to have been established throughout 
these Islands, and compensated, no doubt, in part, for many 
of those abomidable practices which Beem to have been pre- 
valent among the natives. 

Again: On turning to Africa, where we find the most 
abundant and complete exemplifications of every species of 
slavery, and its effects, and where, consequently, the philoso- 
phy of the subject may be most advantageously studied, we 
find most conclusive proof of our assertions. "It deserves 
particular notice, that the nations in this degrading condition 
(state of slavery) are the most numerous, the most powerful, 
and the most advanced in all the ait- and improvements of 
life; that, if we except the human sacrifices to which blind 
veneration prompts them, they display even a disposition 
more amiable, manners more dignified ami polished, and 
moral conduct more correct, than prevail among the citizens 
of the small frei who are usually idle, turbulent, 

quarrelsome and I rhe Africans, too, display, in 

a remarkable degree, th< home, and fondness for their 

native scenes — a mark of considerable advancement in civili- 
zation. "Few of them," says the author of the History of 
Africa just quoted, " are nomadic and wandering; tin y g< ne- 
rally have native Beats, to which they cling with strong feel- 
ings of local attachment. Even the tenants of the desert, 
who roam widely in quest of commerce and plunder, have 
their little watered valleys, or circuit of hills, in which they 
make their permanent abode. v f Can any general facts more 
strikingly illustrate our position than those which we have 
just mentioned? 

But there is other, and abundant testimony, on this subject; 

* See Family Library, ±so. 16, page 237, Africa, 
t Family Library, No. 16, page 228. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 331 

the difference between the negroes imported into the "West 
Indies still farther substantiates all we have said. The ne- 
groes from Whida, or Fida, called in the West Indies Papaios, 
are the best disposed and most docile slaves. The reason 
seems to be, that the great majority of these people are in a 
state of absolute slavery in Africa ; and " Bosnian,"' says 
Bryan Edwards, "speaks with rapture of the improved state 
of their soil, the number of villages, and the industry, riches? 
and obliging manners of the natives."* So that slavery seems 
to be an incalculable advantage to them, both in the West 
Indies and in their own country. 

The Koromantyn, or Gold Coast negro, is generally stub- 
born, intractable, and unfit for labor, at first. His habits, in 
his native country, are very similar to those of the North 
American Indian. He must be broke and tamed, before he 
is fit for labor. When they are thus tamed, however, they 
become the best laborers in the West Indies. " They some- 
times,"' says Bryan Edwards, " take to labor with great promp- 
titude and alacrity, and have constitutions well adapted to it." 
And he gives, as a reason for this, that "many of them have 
undoubtedly been slaves in Africa." Still, this country seems 
yet too barbarous for a regular system of slavery. Accord- 
ingly, the Koromantyns are described as among the most 
ferocious of the Africans in war, never sparing the life of an 
enemy, except to make him a slave, and that but rarely. 
Their whole education and philosophy, consequently, seem 
directed, as is the case with all savages, to prepare and steel 
them against the awful vicissitudes to which they are ever 
liable — they have their yell of war, and their death songs too. 
Nothing but slavery can civilize such beings, give them habits 

* Edward's West Indies, vol. 2, pp. 278, 279. 



332 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

of industry, and make them cling to life for its enjoy- 
in on; 

Strange as it may seem, we have little hesitation in decla- 
ring it as our opinion, that a much greater number of Indians, 
within the limits of the United States, would have been saved, 
had we rigidly persevered in enslaving them, than by our pre- 
sent policy. It is, perhaps, the most melancholy fact con- 
nected with the history of our young republic, that in propor- 
tion as the whites have been advancing, the Indians have been 
constantly and rapidly decreasing in numbers. When our 
>rs first settled on this continent, the savages were 
around and among them, and were everywhere spread over 
this immense territory. Now, where are they \ Where are 
the warlike tribes that went to battle under their chieftains! 
They have rapidly disappeared, as the pale faces have ad- 
vanced. Their numbers have dwindled to insignificance. 
Within the limits of the original State*, tlie primitive stock 
duced to 1G,000. Within the whole of the Uni- 
ted State*, ea>t of the Mississippi, there are but 10-"), 000; 
and on the whole of our territory, east and west of the Mis- 
sissippi, extending over 24 derees of latitude and 5S of lon- 
gitude, there are but 313,180! ! Miserable remnant of the 
myriads of former days ! And yet the government of our 
country has exhausted every means for their civilization, and 

* This increasing love of lite, as an effect of slavery, is exemplified 
in the following anecdote, related by Edwards : " A gentleman of 
Jamaica, visiting a valuable Koromantyn negro, that was sick, and 
perceiving that be was thoughtful and dejected, endeavored, by pooth 
ing and encouraging language, to raise his drooping spirits. ' Massa,' 
said the negro, in a tone, of self- reproach and conscious degeneracy, 
'since me come to white man's county, me lub (love) life too much.' '» 
History of the West Indies, vol. 2, p. 275. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 333 

the philanthropist has not been idle in their behalf. Schools 
have been erected, both public and private, missionaries have 
been sent among them, and all in vain. The President of the 
United States now tells you that their removal farther West 
is necessary — that those who live on our borders, in spite of 
our efforts to civilize them, are rapidly deteriorating in cha- 
racter, and becoming every day more miserable and destitute. 
We agree with the President in this policy — to remove them 
is all we can now do fur them. But, after all, the expedient 
is temporary, and the relief is short lived. Our population 
will again, and at no distant day, press upon their borders, 
their game will be destroyed, the intoxicating beverage will 
be furnished to them, they will engage in wars, and their 
total extermination will be the inevitable consequence. The 
hand-writing has indeed appeared on the wall. The myste- 
rious decree of Providence has gone forth against the red 
man. His destiny is fixed, and final destruction is his inevi- 
table fate. Slavery, we assert again, seems to be the only 
means that we know of, under heaven, by which the ferocity 
of the savage can be conquered, his wandering habits eradi- 
cated, his slothfulness and improvidence — by which, in fine, 
his nature can be changed. The Spaniards enslaved the In- 
dians in South-America, and they were the most cruel and 
relentless of masters. Still, under their system of cruel and 
harsh discipline, an infinitely larger proportion of the abo- 
rigines were saved than with us, and will, no doubt, in the 
lapse of ages, mix and harmonize with the Europeans, and be, 
in all respects, their equals.* 

* Humboldt, in his recapitulation of the population of New Spain, 

gives us the following table : 

Indigenous, or Indians, 2,500,000 

wt L . c< • i {Creoles, 1,025 000) . i iCO 000 

\\ hues, or Spaniards, j Europeans> 70j000 \ - l,10U,uuu 



334 PROVKMOV DEW OS slavery. 

From their inhuman treatment of the Indians, at first, 
numbers died in the process of taming and subjugating; but, 
in the end, their system has pro> hum me than ours, 

and deraonstrat ibt, that nothing is so fit as 

slavery, to change the nature of 1 rve," 

- Humboldt, u and the observation is consoling to human- 
ity, that not only has the number of Indians in South Ame- 
rica and Mexico been on the increase, for the last century, 
(In* published his work in 1808,) but that the whole of the 
vast region which we by the general nan 

New Spain, is much better inhabited at present than it was 
ival of tii • Ei :es a very re- 

markable in-' □ unjust slavery, on 

the industry and agriculture of the country. lie speaks of 
the Alcaldias Ma >viucial ma - and 

judges in Me: g the Indians to purchase cattle of 

them, and afterwards reducing them to slavery, for non-pay- 
ment of 1 contracted. And he add?, upon the 
authority of Fray hat " the 
individual happiness of these unfortunate wrel not, 
certainly, increased by the sacrifice of their liberty, for a horse 
or a mule to work for their master's profit; but yet, in this 



African negroes, - G,l 00 

1.33 1.000 

[Humbol It's New Spain, N. Y. ed . vol. 2, p 2 10. 

Again: The number of Indians in Peru is esiimated at GJO.O00 

» 

nearly double of the whole Indian population of ihe United States.—- 
[Vol. 1. p. CO. 

* We shall soon see that there ia not, in the annals of history, an 
instance of biicIi rapid improvement in civilization, as that and rgood 
by the negro slaves in our couutry, since the time they were first 
Lit u i i among us. 

t Humboldt's New Spain, vol.l, p. 71. 



PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. S3 5 

stale of things, brought on by abuses, agriculture and indus- 
; try ivere seen to increase?* 

We beg our readers to bear in mind, that we are here 
(merely discussing the effects of slavery, and not passing our 
opinions upon the justice or injustice of its oiigin. We shall 
(now close our remarks upon this head, by the citation of an 
['instance furnished by our own country, of the great advan- 
tage of slavery to masters — for, among savages, the benefit 
seems to extend to both master and slave. There is an able 
article in the G6tli number of the North American Review, on 
the "Removal of the Indians," from the pen of Governor 
Cass, whom we have no hesitation, from the little we have 
I seen of his productions, to pronounce one of the most philo- 
sophical and elegant writers in this country. In this article, 
after pointing out the true condition of the Indian tribes in 
the neighborhood of the whites, and proving, beyond a doubt, 
that they are injured, instead of benefitted, by their juxta- 
position, he admits that the Cherokees constitute a solitary, 
and but a partial exception — that some individuals among 
them have acquired property, and, with it, more enlarged 
and just notions of the value of our institutions. He says 
that these salutary changes are confined principally to the 
half breeds, and their immediate connexions, and are not 
sufficiently numerous to overturn his reasoning, against the 
practicability of civilizing the Indians. Now, what are the 
causes of this dawn of civilization among the Cherokees ? 
"The causes which have led to this state of things," says 
Governor Cass, "are too peculiar ever to produce an extensive 
result. . . . They have been operating for many years, 
and amonr/ the most prominent of them, has been the intra- 
j duction of slaves, by which means, that unconquerable aver- 

•Vol. 1, pp. 140,147. 



336 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

sion to labor, so characteristic of all savage tribes, can be 
indulged."* 

We hope, now, we have Baid i oough to convince even the, 
most Bceptical, of the powerful effects of slavery, in changing 
the habits peculiar to the Indian orsa rtinghim 

into the agriculturist, and changing his slothfulness and aver- 
sion to labor into industry and economy, thereby rendering 
his labor more productive, his m< ans of subsistence more 
abundant and regular, and his happiness more secure and 
constant We caunot close ourremarkson the general effects 
ivery on the progi civilization, without pointing 

out the peculiar influence on that portion of the human race, 
which the civilized nations of modern times so much delight 
to honor and to cherish — thl 

3. Influence of slavery on tht of the j\ wale 

sex. — The bare Dame of this inter* -ting half of the human 
family, is well calculated to awaken in the breast of the \ 
erous the feeling of tenderness and kindness. The wrongs 
and Bufferings of meek, quii t. forbearing woman, awaken the 
generous sympathy of every noble heart. Man never sutlers 
without murmuring, and never relinquishes his rights without 
a struggle. It is not always so with woman: her physical 
weakness incapacitates her for the com bat ; her sexual organi- 
zation, and the part which she takes in bringing foith and 
nurturing the rising generation, render her necessarily domes- 
tic in her habits, and timid and patient in her Bufferings. If 
man choose to exercise his power against woman, she is sure 

* See North American Review, No. 66, article 3. The Spaniards, 
when they first conquered Mexico and Peru, were, as we have already 
the most cruel and relentless of masters. They are now the mo^t 
humane and kind, and perhaps the Portuguese come next, who were 
equally cruel with the Spaniard?, during the fir&t ceutury alter their 
settlement in the New World. 



TROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 337 

to fall an easy prey to his oppression. Hence, we may al- 
ways consider her progressing elevation in society as a mark 
of advancing civilization, and, more particularly, of the aug- 
mentation of disinterested and generous virtue. The lot of 
women, among savages, has always been found to be painful 
and degrading. Dr. Robertson says that, in America, their 
condition " is so peculiarly grievous, and their depression so 
complete, that servitude is a name too mild to describe their 
wretched state. A wife, among most tribes, is no better than 
a beast of burthen, destined to every office of labor and fa- 
tigue. While the men loiter out the day in sloth, or spend 
it in amusement, the women are condemned to excessive toil. 
Tasks are imposed on them without pity, and services are 
received without complacence or gratitude. Every circum- 
stance reminds women of this mortifying inferiority. They 
must approach their lords with reverence. They must regard 
them as more exalted beings, and are not permitted to eat in 
their presence. There are districts in America where this 
dominion is so grievous, and so sensibly felt, that some wo- 
men, in a wild emotion of maternal tenderness, have destroyed 
their female children in their infancy, in order to deliver them 
from that intolerable bondage to which they knew they were 
doomed."* 

This harrowing description of woman's servitude and suf- 
ferings, among the aborigines of America, is applicable to all 
savage nations. In the Islands of Andaman, in Van Die. 
man's Land, in New Zealand,! and New Holland, the lot of 
woman is the same. The females carry, on their heads and 
bodies, the traces of the superiority of the males. Mr. Col- 

* Robertson's America, vol. 1, p. 177. 

\ In New Zealand, agriculture has worked a most wonderful change 
in the lot of woman. She is now more respected and loved. See 
Library of Entertaining Knowledge, vol. 5, New Zealanders. 
29 



338 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

lins savs, of the women of New South Wales, "Their condi- 
tion is' so wretched, that I have often, on seeing a female 
child borne on its mother's shoulders, anticipated the miseries 
to which it wh born, and thought it would be mercy to de- 
stroy it." And thus it is that the most important of all con- 
nections, the marriage tie, is perverted, to the production of 
the degradation and misery of the one sex, and the arrogant 
assumption and unfeeling cruelty of the other. But the evil 
stops not with the Bufferings of woman— her prolificness is in 
a measure destroyed. Unaided by the male in the rearing 
of her children, and being forced to bear them on their shoul- 
ders, when the huntsmen are roaming through the forest, 
many of their offspring must die, from the vicissitudes to 
which they are (subjected at so tender an age. Moreover, 
" among wandering tribes," says Dr. Robertson, "the mother 
cannot attempt to rear a second child until the first has at- 
tained Buch a degree of rigor as to be in some measure inde- 
pendent of her care. . . . When twins are born, one of 
them is commonly abandoned, because the mother is not 
equal to the task of rearing both. When a mother dies 
while she is nursing a child, all hope of preserving its life 
fails, and it is buried, together with her, in the -aim- grave."* 
It is not necessary that we should continue farther this shock- 
ing picture ; but let ua proceed at once to inquire if the in- 
stitution of slavery is not calculated to relieve the sufferings 
and wrongs of injured woman, and elevate her in the scale 
of existence ? Slavery, we have just seen, changes the hunt- 
ing to the shepherd and agricultural states,— gives rise to aug- 
mented productions, and, consequently, furnishes more abun- 
dant supplies for man. The labor of the slave thus becomes 
a substitute for that of the woman ; man no longer wanders 

* Robertson's America, vol. 1, p. 177. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 339 

through the forest, in quest of game ; and woman, consequent- 
ly, is relieved from following on his track, under the enerva- 
ting and harassing burthen of her children. She is now sur- 
rounded by her domestics, and the abundance of their labor 
lightens the toil and hardships of the whole family. She 
ceases to be a mere " beast of burthen ;" becomes the cheer- 
ing and animating centre of the family circle — time is afford- 
ed for reflection and the cultivation of all those mild and fas- 
cinating virtues, which throw a charm and delight around 
our homes and firesides, and calm and tranquillize the harsher 
tempers and more restless propensities of the male : Man, 
too, relieved from that endless disquietude about subsistence 
for the morrow — relieved of the toil of wandering over the 
forest — more amply provided for by the productions of the 
soil — finds his habits changed, his temper moderated, his 
kindness and benevolence increased ; he loses that savage and 
brutal feeling which he had before indulged towards all his 
unfortunate dependants ; and, consequently, even the slave, 
in the agricultural, is happier than the free man in the hunt- 
ing state. 

In the very first remove from the most savage state, we 
behold the marked effects of slavery on the condition of wo- 
man — we find her at once elevated, clothed with all her 
charms, mingling with and directing the society to which she 
belongs, no longer the slave, but the equal and the idol of 
mau. The Greeks and Trojans, at the siege of Troy, were in 
this state, and some of the most interesting and beautiful 
passages in the Iliad relate to scenes of social intercourse and 
conjugal affection, where woman, unawed and in all the pride 
of conscious equality, bears a most conspicuous part. Thus, 
Helen and Andromanche are frequently represented as ap- 
pearing in company with the Trojan chiefs, and mingling 
freely in conversation with them. Attended only by one or 



340 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

two maid servants, they walk through the streets of Troy, as 
business or fancy directs : even the prudent Penelope, perse- 
cuted as she is by her suitors, does not scruple occasionally to 
appear among them ; and scarcely more reserve seems to be 
imposed on vjrgins than married women. Mitford has well 
observed, that " Homer's elegant eulogiums and Hesiod's se- 
vere sarcasm, equally prove woman to have been in their days 
important members of society. The character of Penelope in 
the Odyssee, is the completesl panegyric on the sex that ever 
was composed ; and no language even give a more elegant 
or more highly colored picture of conjugal affection, than is 
displayed in the conversation of Hector and Andromanche, in 
the 6th book of the Iliad.'"-'' 

The Teutonic races who inhabited the mountains and fast- 
nesses of Germany, were similarly situated to the Greeks ; 
and even before they left their homes to move down upon the 
Roman Empire, they were no more distinguished by their 
deeds in arms, than for devotion and attention to the weaker 
sex. So much were they characterized by this elevation of 
the female sex, that Gilbert Stuart does not hesitate to trace 
the institution of chivalry, whose origin has never yet been 
satisfactorily illustrated, to the German manners.f 

Again : if we descend to modern times, we see much the 
largest portion of Africa existing in this second stage of civili- 
zation, and, consequently, we find woman in an infinitely bet- 
ter condition than we any where find her among the abori- 
gines on the American continent. And thus is it a most 
singular and curious fact, that woman, whose sympathies are 
ever alive to the distress of others; whose heart is filled with 
benevolence and philanthropy, and whose fine feelings, un- 

* See Mitford's Greece, vol. 1, pp. 16G, 167, Bost. Ed 
f See Stuart's View of Society, particularly book 1, cliap. 2, sec. 4 
and 5. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 341 

cheeked by considerations of interest or calculations of remote 
consequences, have ever prompted to embrace with eagerness 
even the wildest and most destructive schemes of emancipa- 
tion, has been in a most peculiar and eminent degree indebted 
to slavery, for that very elevation in society which first raised 
her to an equality with man. We will not stop here to in- 
vestigate the advantages resulting from the ameliorated con- 
dition of woman : her immense influence on the destiny of 
our race is acknowledged by all : upon her must ever devolve, 
in a peculiar degree, the duty of rearing into manhood a crea- 
ture, in its infancy the frailest and feeblest which Heaven has 
made — of forming the plastic mind — of training the igno- 
rance and imbecility of infancy into virtue and efficiency. 
There is, perhaps, no moral power, the magnitude of which 
swells so far beyond the grasp of calculation, as the influence 
of the female character on the virtues and happiness of man- 
kind : it is so searching, so versatile, so multifarious, and so 
universal : it turns on us like the eye of a beautiful portrait, 
wherever we take our position ; it bears upon us in such an 
infinite variety of points, on our instincts, our passions, our 
vanity, our tastes, and our necessities ; above all, on the first 
impressions of education and the associations of infancy." The 
rule which woman should act in the great drama of life, is 
truly an important and an indispensable one ; it must and 
will be acted, and that too, either for our w T eal or woe : all 
must wish then, that she should be guided by virtue, intelli- 
gence, and the purest affection ; which can only be secured 
by elevating, honoring, and loving her, in whose career we 
feel so deep an interest. 

"We have thus traced out the origin and progress of slav- 
ery, and pointed out its effects in promoting the civilization 
of mankind. We should next proceed to an investigation of 
those causes, of a general character, which have a tendency, 
29* 



342 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

in the progress of society, gradually to remove and extinguish 
slavery ; but these we shall have such frequent opportunities 
of noticing in the sequel, while discussing various schemes of 
abolition that have been proposed, that we have determined 
to omit their separate consideration. 

We shall now proceed to inquire into the origin of slavery 
in the United States. 

It is well known to all, at all conversant with the history 
of our country, that negro slavery in the United States, the 
AYest India Islands, and South America, was originally de- 
rived from the African slave trade, by which the African 
negro was torn from his home, and transferred to the western 
hemisphere, to live out his days in bondage ; Ave shall briefly 
advert — First, to the origin and progress of this trade — Se- 
condly, to its effects on Africa ; and lastly, to the considera- 
tion of the part which the United States have taken in this 
traffic, and the share of responsibility which must be laid at 
their door. 

1. Origin and Progress of the African Slave Trade. — 
This trade, which seems so shocking to the feelings of man- 
kind, dates its origin as far back as the year 1442 : Antony 
Gonzales, a Portuguese mariner, while exploring the coast of 
Africa, in 1440, seized some Moors near Cape Bojador, and 
was subsequently forced by his king, the celebrated Prince 
Ilenry, of Portugal, to carry them back to Africa : he carried 
them to Rio del Oro, and received from the Moors in ex- 
change, ten blacks and a quantity of gold dust, with which he 
returned to Lisbon; and this, which occurred in 1442, was the 
simple beginning of that extensive trade in human flesh, 
which has given so singular an aspect to the texture of our 
population, and which has and will continue to influence the 
character and destiny of the greatest portion of the inhabi- 
tants of the two Americas. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 343 

" The success of Gonzales not only awakened the admira- 
tion, "but stimulated the avarice, of his countrymen, who, in 
the course of a few succeeding years, fitted out no less than 
thirty seven ships, in the pursuit of the same gainful traffic. 
So early as the year 1502, the Spaniards began to employ a 
few negroes in the mines of Hispaniola, and in the year 1517, 
the Emperor, Charles V., granted a patent to certain persons, 
for the exclusive supply of 4,000 negroes annually, to the 
islands of Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico."* 

African slaves were first imported into this country in 1620, 
more than a century after their introduction into the West 
Indies. It seems that, in the year 1620, the trade to Virgi- 
nia was thrown open to all nations, and a Dutch vessel avail- 
ing itself of the commercial liberty which prevailed, brought 
into James River twenty Africans, who were immediately 
purchased as slaves ; " and as that hardy race," says Robert- 
son, " was found more capable of enduring fatigue under a 
sultry climate than Europeans, their number has been increas- 
ed by continual importations."! Slavery was thus introduced 
into the New World, and its fertile soil and extensive territory 
its sparse population and warm climate, so congenial to the 
African constitution, soon gave a powerful stimulus to the 
trade, and drew towards it the mercantile enterprise of every 
commercial nation of Europe. England being the most com- 
mercial of European nations, naturally engrossed a large por- 
tion of the trade ; Bryant Edwards says, that from the year 
1680 to 1786, there were imported into the British posses- 
sions alone, 2,130,000 slaves — making an average annual 
importation of more than 20,000. 

The annual importation into the two Americas from all 

* See Bryant Edward's West Indies, vol. 3, p. 238, and the sequel. 
f See upon this subject 2d chapter of the first volume of Marshall's 
Life of "Washington, and Robertson's Virginia. 



344 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

quarters, Las frequently transcended 100,000 ! But our 
limits will not allow us to enter more fully into this subject ; 
and, therefore, we must content ourselves by calling the at- 
tention of the reader to the 9th section of Walsh's Appeal on 
the subject of negro slavery and the slave trade, in which he 
has brought together all the information upon this subject up 
to the time at which he wrote (1819.) 

We will now proceed to consider, 2d — The effects of the 
Slave Trade on the condition of Africa — and first, will brief- 
ly advert to the supposed advantages. It is well known that 
almost the whole of Africa exists in a barbarous state — only 
one or two removes above the Indian of America. At the 
commencement of the slave trade, slavery, as we have already 
seen, was established throughout Africa, and had led on to 
great mitigation of the cruel practices of war; but still, in 
consequence of the limited demand for slaves under their very 
rude system of agriculture, the prisoner of war was frequently 
put to death. 

So soon, however, as the slave trade was established, great 
care was taken in the preservation of the lives of prisoners, in 
consequence of the great demand for them occasioned by the 
slave traffic ; so that, although an extension has been given 
to the system of slavery, many lives are supposed to have 
been saved by it. 

Again : it has been contended that the slave trade, by 
giving a value to the African negro which would not otherwise 
have been attached to him, has produced much more mild- 
ness and kindness in the treatment of slaves in Africa ; that 
the utmost care is now taken in the rearing of children, and, 
consequently, that although Africa has lost many of her 
inhabitants from this cause, yet a stimulus has thereby been 
given to population, which has in some measure made up the 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 345 

" Africa," says Malthus, "has been at all times the princi- 
pal mart of slaves. The drains of its population in this way 
liave been great and constant, particularly since their intro- 
duction into the European colonies ; but, perhaps, as Doctor 
Franklin observes, it would be difficult to find the gap that 
has been made by a hundred years' exportation of negroes, 
which has blackened half America."* Lastly, it has been urg- 
ed, and with great apparent justness, that the slave trade has 
contributed greatly to the civilization of a large portion of 
the African population ; that, by transportation to the west- 
ern world, they have been placed in contact with the civilized 
white, and have been greatly benefitted by the change ; that 
the system of slavery throughout our continent and the 
islands, is much less cruel than in Africa ; that there nowhere 
prevails in America, the horrid practice of sacrificing the slave 
on the death of his master, in order that he may be well 
attended in another world ; a practice which all travellers in 
Africa assert to be extremely common in many nations ; and 
finally, that the climate of our temperate and torrid zones, is 
much more suitable to the African constitution, than even 
their own climate ; and, consequently, that the physical con- 
dition of the race has greatly improved by the transplanta- 
tion. 

There is certainly much truth in the above assertions ; but 
still we cannot agree that the advantages of Africa from the 
slave trade, have preponderated over the disadvantages. Al- 
though wars have been made more mild by the trade, yet 
they have been made much more frequent : an additional 
and powerful motive for strife has been furnished. Countries 
have been overrun, and cities pillaged, mainly with a view of 
procuring slaves for the slave dealer. Brougham likens the 

* See Malthus on population, vol. 1, page 119, Georgetown Edi- 
tion, 



346 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

operation of the slave trade in this respect, to the effect which 
the different menageries in the world and the consequent de- 
mand for wild beasts, have produced on the inferior animals 
of Africa. They are now taken alive, instead of being killed 
as formerly ; but they are certainly more hunted and more 
harassed than if no foreign demand existed for them. The 
unsettled state of Africa, caused by the slave trade, is most 
undoubtedly unfavorable to the progress of civilization in that 
extensive region. In proof of the fatal effects of the slave 
trade on the peace, order, and civilization of Africa, Mr. AYil- 
berforce asserted, and his assertion is upheld by the state- 
ments of all travellers who have penetrated far into the inte- 
rior, that while in every region the sea coast and the banks of 
navigable rivers, those districts which, from their situation, 
had most intercourse with civilized nations, were found to be 
most civilized and cultivated ; the effects of the slave trade 
had been such in Africa, that those parts of the coast which 
had been the seats of the longest and closest intercourse with 
European nations in carrying on a flourishing slave trade, 
were far inferior in civilization and knowledge to many tracts 
of the interior country, where the face of the white man had 
never been seen ; and thus has the slave trade been able to 
reverse the ordinary effects of Christianity and Mahomedan- 
ism, and to cause the latter to be the instructor and enlight- 
ener of mankind, while the former left them under the undis- 
turbed or rather increased influence of all their native super- 
stitions.* 

Again : the condition of the negro during what is called 
the middle passage, is allowed by all to be wretched in the 
extreme. The slave traders are too often tempted to take on 

* It is proper to state here, that Parke ascribes the superior condi- 
tion of the interior districts of Africa, principally to a more healthy 
climate. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 347 

board more slaves than can be conveniently carried ; they are 
then stored away in much too narrow space, and left to all 
the horrors and privations incident to a voyage through trop- 
ical seas. The Edinburgh Review asserts, that about seven- 
teen in a hundred died generally during the passage, and 
about thirty-three afterwards in the seasoning — making the 
loss of the negroes exported, rise to the frightful amount of 50 
per cent. It has been further asserted, that the treatment of 
the negroes after importation, has been generally so cruel, as 
that the population has not, by its procreative energies, kept 
up its numbers in any of the West India islands ; that it 
has been cheaper for the West Indian to work out his ne- 
groes, and trust to the slave trade for a supply, than to raise 
them in the islands where provisions are so dear. We be- 
lieve the accounts of the ill treatment of slaves in the West 
Indies have been greatly exaggerated, and have no doubt that 
their condition has generally been better than in Africa ; but 
still it is true, that breeding has been discouraged generally 
where the slave trade was in full operation ; and children 
not being allowed full attention from the mother, have too 
frequently died from the want of care. And this is most 
probably a principal reason of the slow increase of the slaves 
in the West Indies, by procreation.* , Upon the whole, then, 
we must come to the conclusion, that the slave trade has been 
disadvantageous to Africa ; has caused a violation of the prin- 
ciples of humanity, and given rise to much suffering and to 
considerable destruction of human life.f Judging by its ef- 

* Another cause of the difficulty of keeping up the slave population 
of the West Indies, is the great disproportion between the sexes 
among those imported — the males being greatly more numerous than 
the females. 

t "We do not by any means wish to be understood as contending 
that negro slavery in our hemisphere, has lessened the number of ne- 



348 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

fects, we must condemn it, and consequently, agree that slav- 
ery in our hemisphere was based upon injustice in the first 
instance. 

But we believe that there arc many circumstances of an 
alleviating character, which form at least, a strong apology for 
the slave trade, thus : slavery exists throughout the whole of 
Africa ; the slave must necessarily be looked upon in the light 
of property, and subject to bargain, sale, and removal, as all 
kinds of moveable property are. The Adscripts Glebes, or 
slaves attached to the soil, and not suffered to be removed, 
fare the worst. When they multiply too greatly for the pro- 
ducts of the soil on which they are situated, their subsistence 
is scanty, and their condition is miserable. When not in pro- 
portion to the extent of the soil, then they are sure to be 
overworked, as there is a deficiency of labor. It is cer- 
tainly best, therefore, if slavery exists, at all, that buying 
and selling should be allowed, and upon this principle the 
middle passage certainly constitutes the greatest objection to 
the slave trade, when those alone are imported who were 
slaves in Africa. 

But again : it is extremely difficult, in all questions of mo- 
rality, to say, how far ignorance, conscientious opinions, and 
concomitant circumstances, may atone for acts extremely 
hurtful and improper in themselves ; we all agree that these 
produce great modifications. The bigot who burns his relig- 
ious enemy at the stake, and conscientiously believes that he 
has done his God a service, and the North American Indian, 
who torments with every refinement of cruelty the prisoner 
who has unfortunately fallen into his hands, and believes that 

groes throughout the world. On the contrary, there is nothing more 
true, than that the number has greatly increased by it. We only al- 
lude to the destruction of life in the Middle Passage and the Season- 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 349 

the Great Spirit applauds him, and that the blood of his fath- 
ers calls for it, surely do not commit the same amount of sin 
as the perfectly enlightened statesman, who should do the 
same things from policy, knowing them to be wrong. In like 
manner, the slave trade, at its origin, can lay claim to the 
same sort of apology, from the condition of the world when it 
arose, and the peculiar circumstances which generated it. 
Slavery was then common throughout almost every country 
of Europe. 

Indeed, the slaves under the appellation of main mortables* 
in France, were never liberated until the revolution in 1789. 
The public law of Europe, too, justified the killing or enslav- 
ing of the prisoner, at the option of the captor. Under these 
circumstances, we are not to wonder that the slave trade, so 
far from exciting the horrors of mankind, as now, actually 
commanded the admiration of Europe. Gonzales, we have 
just seen, during the reign of the celebrated Prince Henry, in 
1442, brought the first negro slaves into Lisbon, and the deed 
excited the admiration of all : again, three years afterwards, 
Dinis Fernandez, a citizen of Lisbon, and an Esquire to the 
King Don John, captured four negroes on the coast of Africa 
and brought them into Lisbon ; and the Portuguese historian, 
Barras, "eulogizes Dinis," says Walsh, in his notices of 
Brazil, " that he did not stop at the time, to make forays into 
the country, and capture more slaves on his own account, but 
brought those he had caught back to his master, who was 
mightily pleased, not only with the discoveries he had made, 
but with the people he had carried with him, which had not 
been delivered from the hands of the Moors like the other ne- 

* It is a singular fact, that the slaves belonging to the Church were 
the last liberated — a striking illustration of the feeble effects of religion 
and philanthropy, when arrayed against interest. 



30 



350 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

groes, which had up to that time come into the kingdom, but 
had been caught on their own soil." 

The famous Bartholomew de Las Casas, Bishop of Chiapi, 
who is said to have been the first to recommend the importa- 
tion of Africans into the New World, was a man of the mild- 
est and most philanthropic temper, yet he never doubted at 
all the right to enslave Africans, though he was the zealous 
advocate and protector of the Indian. " While he contended, 
says Robertson, " for the liberty of people born in one quar- 
ter of the globe, he labored to enslave the inhabitants of 
another region ; and in the warmth of his zeal to save the 
Americans from the yoke, pronounced it to be lawful and ex- 
pedient to impose one Still heavier upon the Africans."* 

We have already seen that Charles V. granted a com- 
mission to a company to supply his American possessions 
with 4,000 slaves per annum. Ferdinand and Isabella like- 
wise had permitted the trade before him. 

John llawkins was the first Englishman who embarked in 
the trade, and he seems by his daring and enterprise in the 
business, to have greatly pleased his sovereign, Queen Eliza- 
beth, who so far from disgracing him, conferred on him the 
honors of knighthood, and made him treasurer of the navy.f 
Elizabeth, James L, Charles I. and II., were all in the habit of 
chartering companies to carry on the trade. No scruples of 
conscience seem ever to have disturbed the quiet of these roy- 
al personages, or of the agents whom they employed. The 
last chartered company was called the Royal African company, 
and had among the subscribers, the King, (Charles II.) the 
Duke of York, his brother, and many other persons of high 
rank and quality.^ In fact, women, the most virtuous and 

* Robertson's America. 

t See Edward's West Indies, vol. 3, page 242. 

% Edward's West Indies, vol. 2, pp. 247-8. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 351 

humane, were often subscribers to this kind of stock, and 
seem never to have reflected upon the injustice and iniquity 
of the traffic, which has so long scandalized civilized Europe. 
It would indeed be a most difficult question in casuistry, to 
determine the amount of sin and wickedness committed by 
the various governments of Europe, in sanctioning a trade 
which the condition of Europe, Africa, and America, and all 
the habits and practices of the day, seemed so completely to 
justify. 

We shall now proceed, 3dly, to the consideration of the 
share of responsibility which attaches to the United States in 
the commission of the original sin by which slavery was first 
introduced into this country. — The colonies, being under the 
control and guidance of another country, were of course re- 
sponsible for no commercial acts and regulations in which 
they had no share whatever. The slave trade, on the part of 
Great Britain, commenced during the reign of Elizabeth, who, 
personally, took a share in it. The colonies did not then ex- 
ist. It was encouraged in the successive reigns of Charles I. 
and II. and James II.; and William III. outdid them all : 
with Lord Sumers for his minister, he declared the slave trade 
to be highly beneficial to the nation. The colonies, all this 
time, took no share in it themselves, merely purchasing what 
the British merchants brought them, and doing therein what 
the British government invited them to do, by every means 
in their power. x\nd now let us see who it was that first 
marked it with disapprobation, and sought to confine it with- 
in narrow bounds. The colonies began in 1*760. South- 
Carolina, a British colony, passed an act to prohibit further 
importation ; but Great Britain rejected this act with indig- 
nation, and declared that the slave trade was beneficial and 
necessary to the mother country. The governors of the colo- 
nies had positive orders to sanction no law enacted against the 



352 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

slave trade. In Jamaica, in the year 17G5, £3- attempt was 
made to abolish the trade to that island. The governor de- 
clared that his instructions would never allow him to sign the 
bill. It was tried again on the same island in 1774, but 
Great Britain, by the Earl of Dartmouth, president of the 
board, answered : " We cannot alloiv the colonics to check or 
discourage in any degree a traffic so beneficial to the nation? 
The above historical account we have taken from a JJritish 
writer. (Barnham'a Observations on the Abolition of Negro 
Slavery.) 

Among all the colonies, none seem to be more eager and 
more pressing fur the abolition of the slaw trad.' than Virgi- 
nia — in which State the citizens, wonderful to relate, seem 
now more remorseful and conscience-stricken than any where 
else in the whole southern country. Judge Tucker, in his 
Notes on Blackstone's Commentaries, has collected a list of 
no less than twenty-three act- imposing duties on slaves, 
which occur in the compilation of Virginia laws. Hie firs! 
bean date as far back as 1G09 ; and the real design of all of 
them was not revenue, but the repression of the importation. 
In 1772, most of tbe duties previously imposed were re-enact- 
ed, and the Assembly transmitted, at the same time, a peti- 
tion to the throne, which, as Mr. Walsh most justly observes, 
speaks almost all that could be desired, for the confusion of 
our slanderers. The following are extracts: "We are en- 
couraged to look up to the throne and implore your majesty's 
paternal assistance in averting a calamity of a most alarming 
nature." " The importation of slaves into the colonies from 
the coast of Africa, hath long been considered a trade of great 
inhumanity, and, under its present encouragement, we have 
too much reason to fear, will endanger the very existence of 
your Majesty's American dominions." 

u Deeply impressed with these sentiments, we most hum- 






PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 353 

bly beseech your majesty to remove all those restraints on 
your majesty's governors of this colony which inhibit their 
assenting to such laws as might check so very pernicious a 
commerce." The petition, of course, was unavailing. The 
first Assembly which met in Virginia, after the adoption of 
her constitution, prohibited the traffic ; and the " inhuman 
use of the royal negative" against the action of the colony 
upon this subject, is enumerated in the first clause of the first 
Virginia constitution, as a reason of the separation from the 
mother country. 

The action of the United States Government likewise upon 
the slave trade, seems to have been as deeply and efficient as 
could possibly have been expected from a government neces- 
sarily placed under great restraint and limitation. 

Not being able to enter into the details, we quote, with 
great pleasure, the following remark of Mr. Walsh, who, with 
great indefatigable zeal and industry, has collected all the 
important information on the subject of the slave trade, and 
furnished the world with a complete and triumphant vindica_ 
tion of the United States, against the taunts and illiberal 
insinuations of British writers. " It is seen," says Mr. Walsh 
" by the foregoing abstract, that federal America interdicted 
the trade from her ports, thirteen years before Great Britain ; 
that she made it punishable as a crime seven years before ; 
that she had fixed four years sooner the period of non-impor- 
tation — which period was earlier than that determined upon 
by Great Britain for her colonies. We ought not to overlook 
the circumstance, that these measures were taken by a Legis- 
lature composed in considerable part of the representatives of 
Slaveholding States ; slaveholders themselves, in whom, of 
course, according to the Edinburgh Review, 'conscience had 
suspended its functions,' and 'justice, gentleness and pity 
were extinguished.' In truth, the representatives from our 
30* 



354 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

Southern States have been foremost in testifying their abhor- 
rence of the traffic."* Are we not then fully justified, from 
a historical review of the part which the colonists took, before 
and after the independence, in relation to the slave trade, in 
asserting that slavery was forced upon them, and the slave 
trade continued contrary to their wishes ? If ever a nation 
stood justified before heaven, in regard to an evil, which 
had become interwoven with her social system, is not that 
country ours ? Are not our hands unpolluted with the origi- 
nal sin, and did we not wish them clean of the contagion the 
moment our independent existence was established ? Where 
is the stain that rests upon our escutcheon ? There is none ! 
United America has done her duty, and Virginia has the 
honor of taking the lead of the abolition of the slave trade, 
whose example has been so tardily and reluctantly follow- 
ed by the civilized nations of Europe. Virginia, therefore, 
especially, has nothing to reproach herself with — " the still 
small voice of conscience 1 ' can never disturb her quiet. She 
truly stands upon this subject, like the Chevalier Bayard — 
" sans pcur et sans rcproche." 

We have now finished the first principal division of our 
subject — in which we have treated, we hope satisfactorily, of 
the origin of slavery in ancient and modern times, and have 
closed with a consideration of the slave trade, by which slav- 
ery has been introduced into the United States. We hope 
that this preliminary discussion will not be considered inap- 
propriate to our main subject. We have considered it indis- 
pensably necessary to point out the true sources of slavery, 
and the principles upon which it rests, in order that we might 
appreciate fully the value of those arguments based upon the 
principles that " all men are born equal" — that u slavery in 
the abstract is wrong" — that " the slave has a natural right to 
* See Walsh's Appeal, 2d edition, page 323. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 355 

regain his liberty," &c. &c. — all of which doctrines were most 
pompously and ostentatiously put forth by some of the abo- 
litionists in the Virginia Legislature. No set of legislators 
ever have, or ever can, legislate upon purely abstract princi- 
ples, entirely independent of circumstances, without the ruin 
of the body politic, which should have the misfortune to be 
under the guidance of such quackery. Well and philosophi- 
cally has Burke remarked, that circnmstances give in reality 
to every political principle its distinguishing color and dis- 
criminating effect. The circumstances are what render every 
political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind, and we 
cannot stand forward and give praise or blame to anything 
which relates to human actions and human concerns, on a 
simple view of the object as it stands, stript of every relation, 
in all the nakedness and solitude of metaphysical abstraction. 
The historical view which we have given of the origin and 
progress of slavery, shows most conclusively that something 
else is requisite to convert slavery into freedom, than the mere 
enunciation of abstract truths, divested of all adventitious cir- 
cumstances and relations. We shall now proceed to the 
second great division of our subject, and inquire seriously and 
fairly, whether there be any means by which we may get rid 
of slavery. 

77. Plans for the Abolition of Negro Slavery. — Under 
this head we will examine first, those schemes which propose 
abolition and deportation ; and secondly, those which contem- 
plate emancipation without deportation. 

1st. Emancipation and Deportation. — In the late Virginia 
Legislature, where the subject of slavery underwent the most 
thorough discussion, all seemed to be perfectly agreed in the 
necessity of removal in case of emancipation. Several mem- 
bers from the lower counties, which are deeply interested in 
this question, seemed to be sanguine in their anticipations of 



356 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

the final success of some project of emancipation and depor- 
tation to Africa, the original Lome of the negro. " Let us 
translate them," said one of the most respected and able 
members of the Legislature, (Gen. Broadnax,) "to those 
realms from -which, in evil times, under inauspicious influ- 
ences, their fathers were unfortunately abducted. Mr. Speaker, 
the idea of restoring these people to the region in which na- 
ture had planted them, and to whose climate she had fitted 
their constitutions — the idea of benefitting, not only our con- 
dition and their condition, by the removal, but making them 
the means of carrying back to a great continent, lost in the 
proibundesi depths of savage barbarity, unconscious of the ex- 
istence even of the God who created them, not only the arts 
and comforts, and multiplied advantages of civilized life, but 
what is of more value than all, a knowledge of true religion — 
intelligence of a Redeemer — is one of the grandest and no- 
blest, one of the most expansive and glorious ideas whichever 
entered into the imagination of man. The conception, wheth- 
er to the philosopher, the statesman, the philanthropist, or 
the christian, of rearing up a colony which is to be the nu- 
cleus aiound which future emigration will concentre, and open 
all Africa to civilization, and commerce, and science, and arts, 
and religion — when Ethiopia Bhall stretch out her hands, in- 
deed, is one which warms the heart with delight." (Speech 
of Gen. Broadnax, of JHnwiddie, pp. 30 and 37.) We fear 
that this splendid vision, the creation of a brilliant imagina- 
tion, influenced by the pure feelings of a philanthropic and 
generous heart, is destined to vanish at the severe touch of 
analysis. Fortunately for reason and common sense, all these 
projects of deportation may be subjected to the most rigid 
and accurate calculations, which are amply sufficient to dispel 
all doubt, even in the minds of the most sanguine, as to their 
practicability. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 357 

We take it for granted, that the right of- the owner to his 
slave is to be respected, and, consequently, that he is not re- 
quired to emancipate him, unless his full value is paid by the 
State. Let us, then, keeping this in view, proceed to the 
very simple calculation of the expense of emancipation and 
deportation in Virginia. The slaves, by the last census 
(1830,) amounted within a small fraction to 470,000 ; the 
average value of each one of these is, $200 ; consequently, 
j the whole aggregate value of the slave population of Virgi- V 
nia, in 1830, was $94,000,000 ; and allowing for the increase 
since, we cannot err far in putting the present value at $100, 
000,000. The assessed value of all the houses and lands in 
the State, amounts to $206,000,000, and these constitute the 
material items in the wealth of the State, the whole personal 
property besides bearing but a very small proportion to the va- 
lue of slaves, lands, and houses. Now, do not these very simple 
statistics speak volumes upon this subject ? It is gravely recom- 
mended to the State of Virginia to give up a species of property 
which constitutes nearly one-third of the wealth of the whole 
State, and almost one-half of that of Lower Virginia, and 
with the remaining two-thirds to encounter the additional 
enormous expense of transportation and colonization on the 
coast of Africa. But the loss of $100,000,000 of property is 
scarcely the half of what Virginia would lose, if the immutable 
laws of nature could suffer (as fortunately they cannot) this 
tremendous scheme of colonization to be carried into full ef- 
fect. Is it not population which makes our lands and houses 
valuable ? Why are lots in Paris and London worth more than 
the silver dollars which it might take to cover them ? Why 
are lands of equal fertility in England and France, worth 
more than those of our Nothern States, and those again worth 
more than Southern soils, and those in turn worth more than 
the soils of the distant West ? It is the presence or absence 



J 



358 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

of population which alone can explain the fact. It is, in truth, 
the slave labor in Virginia which gives value to her soil and 
her habitations ; take away this, and you pull down the Atlas 
that upholds the whole system ; eject from the State the whole 
slave population, and we risk nothing in the prediction, that 
on the day in which it shall be accomplished, the worn soils 
of Virginia would not bear the paltry price of the government 
lands in the West, and the Old Dominion will be a " waste 
howling wilderness ;" — " the grass shall be seen growing in 
the streets, and the foxes peeping from their holes." 

But the favorers of this Bcheme say they do not contend 
for the Budden emancipation and deportation of the whole 
black population ; they would send off only the increase, and 
thereby keep down the population to its present amount, 
while the whites, increasing at their usual rate, would tinally 
become relatively so numerous as to render the presence of 
the blacks among us for ever afterwards entirely harmless. 
This scheme, which at first, to the unreflecting, seems plana 
ble, and much less wild than the project of sending off the 
whole, is nevertheless impracticable and visionary, as we 
think a few remarks will prove. It is computed that the 
annual increase of the slaves and free colored population of 
Virginia is about six thousand. Let us first, then, make a 
calculation of the expense of purchase and transportation. 
>0 each, the six thousand will amount in value to 111 
200,000. At 830 each, for transportation, which we shall 
soon see is too little, we have the whole expense of purchase 
and transportation 81,880,000, an expense to be annually in- 
curred by Virginia to keep down her black population to its 
present amount. And let us ask, is there any one who can 
seriously argue that Virginia can incur such an annual ex- 
pense as this for the next twenty-five or fifty years, until the 
whites have multipled so greatly upon the blacks, as, in the 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 359 

I opinion of the alarmists, for ever to quiet the fears of the 
i community ? Vain and delusive hope, if any were ever wild 
; enough to entertain it ! Poor old Virginia ! the leader of 
j the poverty stricken team, which have been for years so heav- 
! ily dragging along under the intolerable burthen of the Fed- 
• eral Government, must inevitably be crushed, whenever this 
I new weight is imposed on her, in comparison with which federal 
! exactions are light and mild. We should as soon expect the 
( Chamois, the hardy rover over Alpine regions, by his unas- 
sisted strength to hurl down the snowy mantle which for ages 
I has clothed the lofty summit of Mount Blanc, as that Virgi- 
inia will be ever able, by her own resources, to purchase and 
colonize on the coast of Africa six thousand slaves for any 
i number of years in succession. 

But this does not develope, to its full extent, the monstrous 
absurdity of this scheme. There is a view of it yet to be tak- 
en, which seems not to have struck very forcibly any of the 
speakers in the Virginia Legislature, but which appears to us, 
of itself perfectly conclusive against this whole project. We 
have made some efforts to obtain something like an accurate 
account of the number of negroes every year carried out of Vir- 
ginia to the South and Southwest. We have not been enabled 
to succeed completely ; but from all the information we can 
obtain, we have no hesitation in saying, that upwards of 6,000 
are yearly exported to other States. Virginia is, in fact, a 
\negro raising State for other States ; she produces enough for 
her own supply, and six thousand for sale. Now, suppose 
the government of Virginia enters the slave market resolved 
to purchase six thousand for emancipation and deportation, 
is it not evident that it must overbid the Southern seeker, and 
thus take the very slaves who would have gone to the South ? 
The very first operation, then, of this scheme, provided slaves 
be treated as property, is to arrest the current which has 



3Q0 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

been hitherto flowing to the South, and to accumulate the 
evil in the State. As sure as the moon in her transit over 
the meridian arrests the current which is gliding to the 
ocean, so sure will the action of the Virginia government, in 
an attempt to emancipate and send off 0,000 slaves, stop 
those who are annually going out of the State; and when 
000 are sent off in one year, (which we never expect to 
see) it will be found, on investigation, that they are those 
w ho would have been sent out of the State by the operation 
of our slave trade, and to the utter astonishment and confu- 
sion of our abolitionists, the black population will be found 
advancing with its usual rapidity-the only operation of the 
scheme being to substitute our government, alias, ourselves, as 
purchasers, instead of the planters of the South. Tins is a 
view which every legislator in the State should take, lie 
should beware, lest in his zeal for action, this efflux, which is 
now so salutary to the State, and such an abundant source ol 
wealth, be suddenly dried up, and all the evils of slavery be 
increased instead of diminished. If government really could 
enter with capital and zeal enough into the boundless project, 
we might even in a few years see the laws of nature reversed, 
and the tide of slavery flowing from the South in Virginia, to 
satisfy the philanthropic demand for colonization. The only 
means which the government could use to prevent the above 
described effect, would be either arbitrarily to fix the price ot 
slaves below their market value, which would be a clear viola- 
tion of the right of property, (which we shall presently notice,) 
or to excite a feeling of insecurity and apprehension as to this 
kind of property, and thus dispose the owner to part with it at| 
less than its true value ; but surely no statesman would open- 
ly avow such an object, although it must be confessed that some 
of the speakers, even, who contended that slaves should ever 



PBOFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 361 

be treated as property, avowed sentiments which were calcula- 
ted to produce such a result. 

It is said, however, that the southern market will at all 
events be closed against us, and consequently, that the pre- 
ceding argument falls to the ground. To this we answer, that 
as long as the demand to the south exists, the supply will be 
furnished in some way or other, if our government do not un- 
wisely tamper with the subject. Bryant Edwards has said, 
that " an attempt to prevent the introduction of slaves into 
the West Indies would be like chaining the winds, or giving 
laws to the ocean." We may with truth affirm, that an at- 
tempt to prevent a circulation of this kind of property through 
the slave-holding States of our confederacy, would be equally 
if not more impracticable. But there is a most striking illus- 
tration of this now exhibiting before our eyes — the South- 
ampton massacre produced great excitement and apprehen- 
sion throughout the slave-holding States, and two of them, 
hitherto the largest purchasers of Virginia slaves, have inter- 
dicted their introduction under severe penalties. Many in 
our State looked forward to an immediate fall in the price of 
slaves from this cause ; and what has been the result ? Why, 
wonderful to relate, Virginia slaves are now higher than they 
have been for many years past ; and this rise in price has no 
doubt been occasioned by the number of southern purchasers 
who have visited our State, under the belief that Virginians 
had been frightened into a determination to get clear of their 
slaves at all events ; " and from an artificial demand in the 
slave purchasing States, caused by an apprehension on the 
part of the farmers of those States, that the regular supply of 
slaves would speedily be discontinued by the operation of their 
non-importation regulations ;"* and we are, consequently, at 

* From Louisiana, many of the farmers themselves have come into 
31 



3G2 TROFESSOIt DEW ON SLAVERY. 

this moment exporting slaves more rapidly, through the ope- 
ration of the internal Blave trade, than for many years past 

Let us now examine a moment into the object proposed to 
be accomplished by this Bcheme. It is contended, that tree 
labor is infinitely superior to Blave labor in every point of 
view, and ther< fore it is highly desiral h tnge the lat- 

ter forthe former, and that this will be gradually accomplish- 
ed by emancipation and deportation : because the vacuum 
occasioned by the exportation of the slaves will be filled up 
by thf influx offreemi u from the north and other porti< 
the Union — and thus, for every slave we lose, it is con to i 
that we shall receive in exchange a free laborer, much more 
■ 1 moral. If we are not greatly mistaken, this, 
on analysis, will be found to be a complete specimen of that 
arithmetical scha ' Inch has ever proved so 

ptivein politii . ruinous in itspractical consequen- 

: and first, let us Bee whether anything will bo gained in 
point of products slave labor for 

free, even upon the avowed principles of the abolitionists 
themselves. The great i ' ive labor seems to 

be — First, that it is unproductive, or at least, n< I as produc- 
tive as free labor ; and secondly, that it is calculated to^repel 
free labor from the sphere in which il ed. This lat- 

ter effect has been briefly and more ingeniously urged by a 
writer in the Richmond Enquirer of the 3rd of March, 1832, 
over the signature of "York," than by any one, who is known 

our State, for the purpose of purchasing their own slaves, and thereby 
evading the laws. There are, in fact, bo many plana which will effect- 
ually defeat all these preventive regulations, that wc may consider 
their rigid enforcement utterly impracticable ; and moreover, as the 
excitement produced by the late insurrection in Virginia, dies away, 
so will these laws be forgotten, and remain as dead letters upon the 
statute books. 



PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 363 

to ns, and we shall consequently introduce an extract from Lis 
essay. 

"Society naturally resolves itself," says this writer, "into 
three classes. The first comprehends professional men, capi- 
talists and large landed proprietors ; the second embraces 
artisans and small proprietors ; and the third is composed of 
common laborers. Now, we are a society placed in the 
anomalous predicament of being totally without a laboring 
class ; for all our labor is performed by slaves, who consti- 
tute no part of that society, and who quoad that society, may 
be regarded as brutes or machines. This circumstance ope- 
rates directly as a check upon the increase of white popula- 
tion. For, as some intelligence or property is required to en- 
able a man to belong to either of the two first classes above 
enumerated, (and which I have remarked are the only classes 
which we have,) and so no one with ordinary self-respect can 
submit to sink below them, and become outcasts, the imme- 
diate tendency of the supernumerary members is to emigra- 
tion." We will not, for the present, dispute the premises of 
the very intelligent and graceful writer, from whom we have 
copied the above extract ; we have endeavored throughout 
the review, to show that our adversaries are not justified in 
their conclusions, even if we admit the truth of their premises. 
Now, what is the conclusion arrived at by our adversaries 
from the premises just mentioned ? That we must deport 
our slaves as fast as possible, and leave the vacuum to be fill- 
ed by free labor. In the first place, then, we say upon their 
own principles even, they cannot expect free labor to take the 
place of slave, for every one acknowledges it utterly impossi- 
ble to send away, at once, all our slaves — there is scarcely, 
we presume, a single abolitionist in Virginia, who has ever 
supposed that we can send away more than the annual in- 
crease. Now, then, w r e ask, how can any one reasonably ex- 



3G4 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

pcct tli.it the taking away of two or tlirce nog-roes from a body 
of one hundred, (and this is a much greater proportion than 

the abolitionists hope to colonize,) can destroy that prejudice 
against laboring with the blacks, which is represented, as 
preventing the whites from laboring, and as sending them 
in multitudes to the West. If we are too proud to work in a 
field with fifty negro men this year, we shall surely be no more 
disposed to do it next year, because one negro, the increase of 
fifty, has been sent to Liberia ; and consequently the above 
reasoning, if it prove any thing, proves that we must prevent 
our laboring classes (the Macks) from increasing, because 
whites will not work with them — although the whites will be 
just as averse to working with them after you have checked 
their increase as before. 

Bnt let us suppose, that by some kind of logical legerdm 
main, it can be proven that five labor will supply the place 
of slave labor, which is deported to Africa — even then, we 
think, they will fail upon their other great principle, that free 
labor is better than slave, the truth of which principle, for 
the present, we are willing to allow — and their whole argu- 
ment fails, for this plain and palpable reason, that free labor, 
by association with slave labor, must inevitably be brought 
down to its level, and even below it, — for the vices of the 
slave you may correct, by means of your authority over him, 
but those of the associate free laborer you cannot. Every 
farmer in Virginia, can testify to the truth of this assertion. 
lie knows full well, that if he employs a white laborer to 
work with a black one, even at job work, where of course the 
inducement of labor is greatest — he will do no more than the 
negro, and perhaps, in a majority of cases, he will not do as 
much. What then might we expect of him, if he should 
enter the field with fifty fold his number of blacks, to work 
along with them regularly through the four seasons of the 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 3C5 

year ? We hazard little in saying, he would be a more un- 
productive laborer than the black, for lie would soon have all 
his idle propensities, without being subjected to the same sal- 
utary restraint. 

It is a well knowngeneral fact, to all close observers of man- 
kind, that if two different grades of labor as to productiveness 
be associated together in the same occupation, the higher has 
a tendency to descend to the level of the lower. Schmalz, in 
his Political Economy, says, that the indolence and carelessness 
of the serfs in the north of Europe, corrupt the free laborers 
who come in contact with them. Jones, in his volume on 
Rents, says, " a new road is at this time (1831) making, 
which is to connect Hamburg and the Elb with Berlin ; it 
passes over the sterile sands, of which so much of the north 
of Germany consists, and the materials for it are supplied by 
those isolated blocks of granite, of which the presence on the 
surface of those sands forms a notorious geological puzzle. 
These blocks, transported to the line of road, are broken to 
the proper size by workmen, some of whom are Prussian 
free laborers, others Leibeigeners of the Mecklenburg terri- 
tory, through a part of which the road passes. They are paid 
a stipulated sum for breaking a certain quantity, and all are 
paid alike. Yet the Leibeigeners could not at first be pre- 
vailed upon to break more than one-third of the quantity 
which formed the ordinary task of the Prussians. The men 
were mixed in the hope that the example and the gains of the 
more industrious would animate the sluo-o-ish. Now, mark 
the result. A contrary effect followed ; the Leibeigeners did 
not improve, but the exertions of other laborers sensibly slack- 
ened, and at the time my informant (the English Engineer 
who superintended the work) was speaking to me, the men 
were again at work in separate gangs, carefully kept asun 



3P 



3CG TROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

der."* And thus do we find, by an investigation of this 
subject, that if we should introduce, by .any means, free labot 
in the stead of slave labor deported to Africa, that it will be 
certain to deteriorate by association with slave labor, until it 
sinks down to and even below its level. So far, we have ad- 
mitted the possibility of exchanging slave for free labor, and 
have endeavored to prove, upon the principles of the aboli- 
tionists, that nothing would be gained by it. We will endea- 
vor to prove, and we think we can do it incontestibly, that 
the scheme of the abolition and deportation will not and can- 
not possibly effect this exchange of slave labor for free, even 
if it were desirable. And in order that we may examine the 
project fully in this point of view, we will endeavor — first, to 
trace out its operation on the slave population, and then on 
the white. 

Since the publication of the celebrated work of Dr. Malthus, 
on the "principle of population," the knowledge of the causes 
which etlect its condition and increase, is much more 
widely diffused. It is now well known to every student of 
political economy, that in the wide range of legislation, there 
is nothing more dangerous than too much tampering with the 
elastic and powerful spring of population. 

The energies of government are for the most part feeble or 
impotent when arrayed against its action. It is this procrea- 
tive power of human species either exerted or dormant, which 
so frequently brushes away in reality the visionary fabrics of 
the philanthropists, and mars the cherished plots and schemes 
of statesmen. Euler has endeavored to prove, by some cal- 
culations, that the human species, under the most favorable 
circumstances, is capable of doubling itself once in twelve 
years. 

* See Jones's Political Economy, vol. 1 , pp. 51, 52 — London Edition. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 36 Y 

In our Western country, the progress of population has, in 
many extensive districts, been so rapid as to show, in our opin- 
ion most conclusively, that it is capable of doubling itself once 
in fifteen years without the aid of emigration. The whole of 
our population, since the independence of the United States, 
has shown itself fully capable of duplication in periods of 
twenty-five years, without the accession from abroad.* In 
some portions of our country the population is stationary, in 
others but very slowly advancing. We will assume then for 
the two extremes in our country, the stationary condition on 
the one side, and such increase on the other as to give rise to 
a duplication every fifteen years. Now as throughout the 
whole range comprehended between these extremes, popula- 
tion is capable of exerting various degrees of energy, it is very 
evident that the statesman who wishes to increase or dimin- 
ish population, must look cautiously to the effect of his mea- 
sures on its spring, and see how this will be acted on. If, for 
example, his object be to lessen the number of slowly increas- 
ing population, he must be convinced that his plan does not 
stimulate the procreative energies of society to produce more 
than he is capable of taking away ; or if his object be to in- 
crease the numbers, take heed lest this project deaden and 
paralyze the source of increase so much as to more than coun- 
terbalance any effort of his. Now looking at the texture of 
the Virginia population, the desideratum is to diminish the 
blacks and increase the whites. Let us see how the scheme 
of emancipation and deportation will act. We have already 
shown that the first operation of the plan, if slave property 
were rigidly respected and never taken without full compen- 
sation, would be to put a stop to the efflux from the State 
through other channels ; but this would not be the only effect. 

^_* The longest period of duplication has been about twenty-three 



368 rnoFESSOR dew ox slavery. 

Government entering into the market with individuals, would 
elevate the price of slaves beyond their natural value, raid 
consequently, the raising of them would become an object of 
primary importance throughout the whole State. We can 
readily imagine that the price of slaves might become so great 
that each master would do all in his power to encourage 
marriage among them — would allow the females almost en- 
tire exception from labor, that they might the better breed 
and nurse — and would so completely concentrate his efforts 
upon this object, as to Deglect other schemes and less produc- 
tive sources of wealth. Under these circumstances, the pro- 
lific African might, no doubt, be stimulated to press hard 
upon one of the limits above stated, doubling in numbers in 
fifteen years ; and such is the tendency which our abolition 
scheme-, if seriously engaged in, will most undoubtedly pro- 
duce; they will be certain to stimulate the procreative pow- 
ers of that very race which they are aiming to diminish; they 
will enlarge and invigorate the very monster which they are 
endeavoring to stifle, and realize the beautiful but melancholy 
fable of Si>yphus, by an eternal renovation of hope and dis- 
appointment- If it were possible for Virginia to purchase and 
send off annually for the next twenty-rive or fifty years, 12,000 
slaves, we should have very little hesitation in affirming, that 
the number of slaves in Virginia would not be at all lessened 
by the operation, and at the conclusion of the period such 
habits would be generated among our blacks, that for a long 
time after the cessation of the drain, population might advance 
so rapidly as to produce among us all the calamities and 
miseries of an over-crowded people. 

We are not now detailing in mere conjecture ; there is 
ample proof of the correctness of these anticipations in the 

years seven months, so that the addition of one year and five months 
more than compensate for the emigration. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 369 

history of own hemisphere. The West India Islands, as wo 
have before seen, are supplied with slaves more cheaply by 
the African slave trader than they can raise them, and conse- 
quently the black population in the islands nowhere keeps up 
its numbers by natural increase. It appears by a statement 
of Mr. F. Buxton, recently published, that the total number 
of slaves in the British West Indies, in 1817, was 730,112. 
After the lapse of eleven years, in 1828, the numbers were 
reduced to 678,527, making a loss on the capital of 1817, in 
the short space of eleven years, of 51,585.* In the Mauritius, 
in the same space of time, the loss on the capital of 1817, 
amounting to but 76,774, was 10,767. Even in the Island 
of Cuba, where the negro slave is treated as humanely as any 
where on the globe, from 1804 to 1817, the blacks lost 4,461, 
upon the stock of 1804. " Prior to the annexation of Louisi- 
ana to the United States," says Mr. Clay in his Colonization 
Speech of 1830, " the slaves from Africa were abundant. The 
price of adults was generally about $100, a price less than 
the cost of raising an infant. Then it was believed that the 
climate of that province was unfavorable to the rearing of ne- 
gro children, and comparatively few were raised. After the 
United States abolished the slave trade, the price of adults 
rose very considerably — greater attention was, consequently, 
bestowed on their children, and now nowhere is the African 
female more prolific than she is in Louisiana, and the climate 
of no one of the Southern States is supposed to be more fav- 
orable to the rearing of her offspring." For a similar reason 

* Bryant Edwards attributes the decrease of the slaves in the "West 
Indies principally to the disproportion of the sexes. But in the pre- 
sent instance, we are constrained to attribute it to another cause, for 
we find of the 130,112 slaves in the sugar islands in 1817, 369,517 
were males, and 363,535 were females, being very nearly an equal 
division of the sexes. 



370 TROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

now, the slaves in Virginia multiply more rapidly than in 
most of the Southern States; the Virginians can raise cheap- 
er than they can buy ; in fact, it is one of their greatest sources 
of profit. In many of the other slaveholding States, this 
is not the case, and consequently, the same care is not taken 
to encourage matrimony and the rearing of children. 

For a similar reason, in ancient times, few slaves were 
reared in populous districts and large towns, these being sup- 
plied with slaves raised at a distance or taken in war, at a 
cheaper rate than they could be raised. " The comparison is 
shocking," says Mr. Hume, " between the management of hu- 
man beings and that of cattle ; but bring extremely just when 
applied to the present subject, it may be proper to trace the 
consequences of it. At the capital, near all great cities, in all 
populous, rich, industrious provinces, few cattle are bred. Pro- 
visions, lodging, attendance, labor, are there dear, and men 
find their accounts better in buying the cattle after they come 
to a certain age, from the remote and cheaper countries. 
These are, consequently, the only breeding countries for cat- 
tle ; and by parity of reason for men too, when the latter are 
put on the same footing with the former, as to buying and 
selling. To rear a child in London till he could be serviceable, 
would cost much dearer than to buy one of the same age from 
Scotland or Ireland, where he had been bred in a cottage, 
covered with rags, and fed on oatmeal and potatoes. Those 
who had slaves, therefore, (in ancient times,) in all the richer 
and more populous countries, would discourage the pregnancy 
of the females, and either prevent or destroy the birth.* . . 
A perpetual recruit was, therefore, wanted from the poorer 

* Such means as the last mentioned, will never be resorted toby 

any civilized nation of modern times, either in Europe or America ; 
but others of a less objectionable character most certainly -will be, 
whenever the rearing of slaves entails a great expense on the master 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 311 

and more desert provinces. ... All ancient authors 
tell us that there was a perpetual flux of slaves to Italy from 
; the remoter provinces, particularly Syria, Cilicia,* Cappado- 
| cia, and the lesser Asia, Thrace and Egypt. Yet the number 
! of people did not increase in Italy."]- It is thus we see every- 
where, that the spring of population accommodates itself to 
the demand for human beings, and becomes inert or active in 
proportion to the value of the laborer and the small or great 
expense of rearing him. 

It was upon this very principle that Mr. Pitt, in 1*791, 
based the masterly and unanswerable argument contained in 
his splendid speech on the abolition of the slave trade ; in 
which he proved, upon data furnished by the West India 
planters themselves, that the moment an end was put to slave 
trade, the natural increase of negroes would commence, and 
more than keep up their numbers in the islands. 

But our opponents, perhaps, may be disposed to answer, 
that this increase of slavery from the stimulus to the black 
population afforded by the colonization abroad, ought not to 
be objected to on our own principles, since each slave will be 
worth two hundred dollars or more. This answer would be 
correct enough if it were not that the increase of the blacks is 
effected at our expense, both as to wealth and numbers ; and 
to show this, we will now proceed to point out the operation 
of the scheme under consideration upon the white population. 
Malthus has clearly shown that population depends on the 
means of subsistence, and will, under ordinary circumstances, 
increase to a level with them. Now, by means of subsistence, 
we must not only comprehend the necessaries of life, such as 

* " 10,000 slaves in a day have olten been sold for the use of the 
Romans at Dl4os, in Cilicia." — Strabo, Lib. 14. 

t See Hume's Essays, part 2d, essay 11th, on Fopulousness of An- 
cient Empires. 



372 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

food, clothing, shelter, &c, but likewise such conveniences, 
comforts, and even luxuries, as the habits of the society may- 
render it essential for all to enjoy. Whatever, then, has a 
tendency to destroy the wealth and diminish the aggregate 
capital of society, has the effect, as long as the standard of 
comfort* remains the same, to check the progress of the pop- 
ulation. 

It is sure to discourage matrimony and cause children to be 
less carefully attended to, and to be less abundantly supplied. 
The heavy burthens which have hitherto been imposed on 
Virginia, through the operation of the federal exactions, to- 
gether with the high standard of comfort prevalent through- 
out the whole State, (about which we shall, by and by, make 
a few observations,) have already imposed checks upon the 
progress of the white population of the State. If not one 
single individual were to emigrate from the State of Virginia, 
it would be found, so inert has become the principle of in- 
crease in the State, that the population would not advance 
with the average rapidity of the American people. Now, 
under these circumstances, an imposition of an additional 
burthen of §1,380,000 for the purpose of purchase and de- 
portation of slaves, would add so much to the taxes of the 
citizens — would subtract so much from the capital of the 
State, and increase so greatly the embarrassments of the 
whole population, that fewer persons would be enabled to 
support families, and consequently to get married. This 
great tax, added to those we are already suffering under, 
would weigh like an incubus upon the whole State — it would 
operate like the blighting hand of Providence that should ren- 
der our soil barren and our labor unproductive. It would 

* By standard of comfort, we mean that amount of necessaries, con- 
veniences, luxuries, winch the habits of any people render essential to 
them. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 373 

diminish the value of the fee simple of Virginia, and not only 
check the natural increase of population within the Common- 
wealth, but would make every man desirous of quitting the 
scenes of his home and his infancy, and fleeing from the heavy 
burthen which would forever keep him and his children bu- 
ried in the depths of poverty. His sale of negroes would 
partly enable him to emigrate ; and we have little doubt, 
that whenever this wild scheme shall be seriously commenc- 
ed, it will be found that more whites than negroes will be 
banished by its operation from the State. And there will be 
this lamentable difference between those who are left behind: 
a powerful stimulus will be given to the procreative energies 
of the blacks, while those of the whites will be paralyzed and 
destroyed. Every emigrant from among the whites will cre- 
ate a vacuum not to be supplied — every removal of a black 
will stimulate the generation of another. 

v Uno avuko non deficit alter." 

The poverty stricken master would rejoice in the prolific- 
ness of his female slave, but pray Heaven in its kindness to 
strike with barrenness his own spouse, lest, in the plenitude of 
his misfortunes, brought on by the wild and quixotic philan- 
thropy of his government, he might see around him a nume- 
rous offspring unprovided for, and destined to galling indi- 
gence. 

It is almost useless to inquire whether this deportation of 
slaves to Africa would, as some seem most strangely to antici- 
pate, invite the whites of other States into the Common- 
wealth. Who would be disposed to enter a State with worn 
out soil, and a black population mortgaged to the payment of 
millions per annum, for the purpose of emancipation and de- 
portation, when in the West the most luxuriant soils, unin- 
32 






371 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERS'. 

cumbered with heavy exactions, could be purchased for the 
paltry Bum of |1 25 per acre? 

Where, then, is that multitude of whites to come from, 
which the glowing fancy of orators has sketched ont as flow- 
ing into and tilling up the vacuum created by the removal of 
slaves? The fact is, throughout the whole debate in the Vir- 
ginia Legislature, tin; speakers seemed to consider the increase 
of population as a sort of fixed quantity, which would remain 
the same under the endless change of circumstance, and con- 
sequently that every man exported from among the Macks, 
Lessened pro t<nti<> exactly the black population, and that the 
whites, moving on with their usual speed, would till the void ; 
which certainly was an erroneous supposition, and manifested 
an almost unpardonable inattention to the wonderful elasticity 
of the powerful spring of population. The removal of inhab- 
itants, accompanied with great loss of productive labor and 
capital, so far from leaving the residue in a better situation, 
and disposing them to increase and multiply, produces the 
directly opposite effect ; it deteriorates the condition of society, 
and deadens the spring of population. It, is curious to look 
to the history of the world, ami see how compl< t< ly this posi- 
tion is sustained by facts. Since the downfall of the Roman 
Empire, there have been three forced emigrations of very 
considerable extent, from three of the countries of Europe. 
The Moors were expelled from Spain, the Protestants from 
the Netherlands, and the Huguenots from France ; each of 
these expulsions came well nigh ruining the country from 
which it took place. We are best acquainted with the effects 
of the expulsions of the Huguenots from France, because it 
happened nearer to our own times, during the reign of Louis 
XIV. In this case, only 500,000 are supposed to have left 
France, containing then a population of 20 or 25,000,000 of 
souls. The energies of this mighty country seemed at once 






. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 3*75 



ar- 

rac- 



paralyzed by this emigration, her prosperity was instantly 
rested, her remaining population lost the vigor which chara 
tensed them as long as this leaven was among them, and to 
this day France has not recovered from the tremendous blow. 
Her inferiority to England in industry and all the useful arts | 
is in a great measure to be traced back to this stupid intol- 
erance of her great monarch Louis XIV. The reason why 
these expulsions were so very injurious to the countries in 
question, was because the emigrants were the laboring classes 
of society, and their banishment consequently dried up the 
sources of production, and lessened the aggregate wealth and 
capital of the people. Now, these expulsions are nothing in 
comparison with that contemplated by our abolitionists. In 
France, only one in fifty of the population was expelled, and 
no expense was incurred in the deportation ; but, in Virginia, 
the proportion to be expelled is much greater, and the ex- 
ense is to devolve on the government. 
When the emigration is accompanied with no loss of capital 
to the State, and no abstraction of productive labor, then the 
population will not be injuriously affected, but sometimes great- 
ly benefitted. In the hunting state, the expulsion of half of 
the tribe would benefit the remainder in a politico-economical 
light, because they live on the game of the forest, which be- 
comes more abundant as soon as the consumers diminish. 
Pastoral nations, for a like reason, are rarely injured by emi- 
gration, for they live on cattle, and the cattle live on the spon- 
taneous produce of the earth, and when a colony is sent off, 
the remainder will generally be benefitted, since the consump- 
tion is relieved while the production is not diminished. And 
this satisfactorily explains the difficulty which has so much 
puzzled historians ; how the North of Europe, which Gibbon, 
Hume, and Robertson, all maintain was in a pastoral state, 
and not nearly so thickly settled as at present, should never- 



37G PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

theless have been able for several centuries to furnish those 
terrible Bwarms of barbarians, who, "gathering fresh darkness 
and terror" as they rolled on upon the south, at length, with 
their « <l multitudes, " obscured the sun of Italy, and 

sunk the Roman work! in night" This example of the bar- 
barians in the north of Europe, sending so many hundreds of 
thousands of emigrants to the Boutb, is a beautiful illustra- 
tion of the capacity of population to counteract the effects 
of emigration, in all those cases where the spring of popula- 
tion is not weak. -iicd.. m as new swarms left the coun- 
try, the means of subsist* nee were more ample for the residue ; 
the vigor of population Boon supplied the deficiency ; and then 
another swarm went forth and relieved again the national 
hive. Our purchase and deportation of slaves would produce 
a similar effect on our blacks, but it would be entirely at the 
expense of both the numbers and wealth of the whites, and 
would be, therefore, one of the most blighting curses that I 
could scathe the land. Ireland, at present, is suffering heavy af- | 
Mictions from an ov< I population; but her government 
could not relieve her by sending off the pauj ers, and for the I 
simp 1 that it would require an expense on the part \ 
of 1 Inland, which would produce as great or even greater ab- 
straction of capital than of unproductive mouths, and would, 
moreover, give more vigor to the spring of population. If 
other nations would incur the expense for her, then perhaps 
there mighl be for her a temporary benefit ; but in a short time 
such a stimulus would be given to population, as would coun- 
teract all the vain efforts of man, and in the end, leave her 
in a worse condition than before. "We doubt whether Eng- 
land, France, and Germany, by a steady concentration of all 
their financial resources upon the deportation and comfortable 
settlement and support of the superabundant population of 
Ireland, would, at the expiration of fifty years, be found to 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 377 

have lessoned the numbers by one single individual. The 
effect would merely be, to pledge the resources of these three 
; nations to the support of the Irish population, and to substi- 
| tute the procreation of Irishmen for that of Englishmen, 
! Frenchmen, and Germans ; and as soon as this support was 
withdrawn, the very habits which had been generated by it in 
Ireland, would be its greatest curse. The only effectual 
means of relieving Ireland, will be to raise the standard of 
comfort in that country, and to arrest the population by the 
preventive checks which would lessen the marriages. Until 
this be done, in some way or other, Ireland is doomed to suf- 
fer the heavy penalty. 

We are now prepared to explain how it is that so many 
negroes have been exported from Africa by the slave trade, 
while the gap, says Franklin, is almost imperceptible. Gen. 
Broadnax, in his speech, computes the average number now 
annually sent out from Africa, by the operation of the slave 
trade, to be 100,000 ; and, he adds, if all this can be effected 
against so many risks and hazards, and in violation of the 
laws of God and man, shall it be said that the whole State of 
Virginia cannot export 6,000 to Africa in a year ? Yes, 
strange as it may seem, this is all true ; and the simple rea- 
son of the great difference is that Africa incurs no expense, 
but on the contrary, generally receives a full equivalent for 
the deported slave, which augments her means of subsistence, 
and stimulates the spring of population. The slave trade, 
which takes off 100,000 human beings from Africa, for the 
slave markets of the West Indies and South America, has, by 
its operation, quickened the procreative powers of society in 
Africa to such an extent, as not only to keep up her numbers, 
but to furnish besides 100,000 souls for exportation. Could 
we suppose it possible for this slave trade to be annihilated 
at a blow ; repugnant and shocking as it is to every feeling of 
32* 



378 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

humanity, it would be found that its sudden cessation would 
plunge the whole of Western Africa, for a season, into the 
most dreadful anarchy and appalling distress. It would he 

found that the habits of the people had been formed to suit 
the slave trade, and accordingly, would be much too favorabM 
to the rapid increase of population without that trade — prison- 
ers of war would be slaughtered, infants murdered, marri- 
ages discouraged, and swarms of redundant citizens sent forth 
to ravage neighboring countries ; and all this would arise from 
the too rapid increase of population, for the means of subsis- 
tence, caused by the Budden stopping of the slave trade. It 
will be thus seen, that the 100,000 annually sent oft" from 
Africa, are a source of profit and not of expenditure. Saddle 
Africa with the whole of this burthen, and we are perfectl! 
sure that the entire resources of that immense continent 
would not suffice to purchase up, send offj and colonize 5,000 
per annum. There is the same difference between this expos 
tation from Africa, and that proposed by the abolitionists 
from Virginia, that there is between the agriculturist who 
sends his produce to a foreign state or country, and receives 
back a full equivalent, and him who is condemned to send 
his abroad at his own expense, and to distribute it gratuitous- 
ly. We imagine that no one who was acquainted with the 
condition of these two farmers would wonder that one should 
grow wealthy, and the other miserably poor. The 0,000 
slaves which Virginia annually sends oft' to the South are a 
source of wealth to Virginia ; but the 1,000 or 2,000 whites 
who probably go to the West, are a source of poverty ; be- 
cause, in the former case, we have an equivalent left in the 
place of the exported slave — in the latter, we lose both labor 
and capital, without an equivalent ; and precisely such a re- 
sult in a much more aggravated form, will spring from this 
mad colonization scheme, should it ever be carried into ope- 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 3*9 

ration. If the governments of Europe were silly enough to 
appropriate their resources to the purchase of our slaves, at 
their full marketable value, for the purpose of deportation, 
they should, for aught that we could do, have every one that 
they could buy. An equivalent would thus be left for the 
deported slave, and however much others might sutler for 
their folly, we should escape.* 

Against most of the great difficulties attendant on the plan 
of emancipation above examined, it was impossible for the 
abolitionists entirely to close their eyes ; and it is really curi- 
ous to pause a moment and examine some of the reflections 
and schemes by which Virginia was to be reconciled to the 
plan. We have been told that it would not be necessary to 
purchase all the slaves sent away — that many would be sur- 
rendered by their owners without an equivalent. "There are 
a number of slaveholders," said one who has all the lofty 
feeling and devoted patriotism which have hitherto so proud- 
ly characterized Virginia, " at this very time, I do not speak 
from vain conjecture, but from what I know from the best 
information, and this number would continue to increase, who 
would voluntarily surrender their slaves, if the State would 
provide the means of colonizing them elsewhere. And there 
would be again another class, I have already heard of many, 
while they could not afford to sacrifice the entire value of 
their slaves, would cheerfully compromise with the State for 
half their value." In the first place, we would remark, that 
the gentleman's anticipation would certainly prove delusive — 

* Perhaps one of the greatest blessings (if it could be reconciled to 
our conscience,) which could be conferred on the Southern portion of 
the Union, would arise from the total abolition of the African slave 
trade, and the opening of the West India and South American mar- 
kets to our slaves. We do not believe that deportation to any other, 
or in any other way, can ever effect the slightest diminution. 



380 rnoFESSOR dew ox slavery. 

the surrender of a very few Blaves would enhance the import- 
ance and value of the residue, and make the owner much 
more reluctant to part with them. Lot any fanner in I. 
Virginia ask himself how many he can spare from his planta- 
tion — and he will besurprised to see how few can be dispi 
with. If that intelligent gentleman, from the storehouse of 
his knowledge, would but call up the history of the past, lie 
would sec that n h,ilanthropy, with all her splendid 

tings, has never yet accomplished one ' i me ; he 

would find the remark of that great judge of human nature, 
the illustrious author of the •'Wealth of Nations," that no 
people had the generosity to liberate their slaves, until it be- 
came their interest to do bo, but too true ; and the phi! 
phic page of Hume, Robertson, Stuart, and Sismondi, would 
inform him that the serfs of Europe have been only gradually 
emancipated through the operation of self-interest, and not 
philanthropy ; and we shall ■ that it was fortunate 

for both parties that this was thee 

But it is strange, indeed, that gentlemen have never reflect* 
ed, that the pecuniary loss to the State will be precisely the 
same, whether the be purchased or gratuitously sur- 

rendered. In the latter case, the burthen is only shifted from 
the whole State to that portion where the surrender is made 
— thus, if we own $10,000 worth of -this property, and sur- 
render the whole to government, it is evident that we lose the 
amount of >< 1 0,000 ; and if the whole of Lower Virginia 
could at once be induced to give up all of this property, and 
it could be sent away, the only effect of this generosity and 
self-devotion would be to inflict the blow of desolation more 
exclusively on this portion of the State — the aggregate loss 
would be the same, the burthen would only be shifted from 
the whole to a part — tie' West would dodge the blow, and 
perhaps every candid citizen of Lower Virginia would confess 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 381 

that he is- devoid of that refined incomprehensible patriotism 
which would call for self-immolation on the shrine of folly, 
and would most conscientiously advise the Eastern Virginians 
never to surrender their slaves to the government without a 
fair equivalent. Can it be genuine philanthropy to persuade 
them alone to step forward and bear the whole burden ? 

Again : some have attempted to evade the difficulties by 
seizing on the increase of the negroes after a certain time. 
Thus, Mr. Randolph's plan proposed that all born after the 
year 1840, should be raised by their masters to the age of 
eighteen for the female, and twenty-one for the male, and 
then hired out, until the neat sum arising therefrom ainount- 
j ed to enough to send them away. Scarcely any one in the 
Legislature — we believe not even the author himself — entirely 
approved of this plan.* It is obnoxious to the objections we 
have just been stating against voluntary surrender. It pro- 
poses to saddle the slaveholder with the whole burthen ; it 
infringes directly the rights of property ; it converts the 
fee simple possession of this kind of property into an estate 
for years ; and it only puts off the great sacrifice required of 
the State to 1840, when most of the evils will occur that have 
already been described. In the meantime, it destroys the 
value of slaves, and with it all landed possessions — checks the 
productions of the State, imposes (when 1840 arrives) upon 
the master the intolerable and grievious burthen of raising his 
young slaves to the ages of eighteen and twenty-one, and 
then liberating them to be hired out under the superinten- 
dence of government, (the most miserable of all managers,) 
until the proceeds arising therefrom shall be sufficient to send 

* The difficulty of falling upon any definite plan which can for a 
moment command the approbation of even a few of the most intelli- 
gent abolitionists, is an unerring symptom of the difficulty and im- 
practicability of the whole. 



382 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

them away. If any man, at all conversant with political econ- 
omy, should ever anticipate the day when this shall happen, 
we can only say that his faith is great indeed, enough to re- 
move mountains, and that he has studied in a totally different 
school from ourselves. Let us ask, in the language of one of 
Virginia's most cherished statesm -n, who has stood by and 
defended with so much zeal and ability the interests of Lower 
Virginia — and who Bhone forth one of the brightest stare in 
that constellation of talent which met together in the Virgi- 
nia Convention — " Is it supposed that any tyranny eau subdue 
us to the patient endurance of such a state of things? Every 
prudent slaveholder in the Blaveholding part of the State, 
would either migrate with his slaves to some State where his 
rights in slave property would he secured to him by the laws, 
or would surrender at once his rights in the parent stock as 
well as in their future increase, and seek some land where ho 
may enjoy at least the earnings of his own industry. In the 
first case, the country would 1> d; in the other, it 

would be abandoned to the slaves, to be cultivated under the 
management of the State. The plan would result in a sacri- 
fice, more probably an abandonment, of our landed, as well 
as the abolition of our slave property. Can any thing but 
force — can any force tame us to wrongs like these?"* Again ; 
we entirely agree with the assertion of Mr. Brown, one of 
the ablest and most promising of Virginia's sons, that the in- 
genuity of man, if exerted for the purpose, could not devise a 
more efficient mode of producing discontent among our 
slaves, and thus endangering the peace of the community. 
There are born annually of this population about 20,000 
children. Those which are born before the year 1840 are to 
be slaves ; those which are born after that period to be free at 
a certain age. These two classes will be reared together ; 
* Letters of Appomattox to the people of Virginia, 1st letter, p. 13. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 



383 



they will labor together, and commune together. It cannot 
escape the observation of him who is doomed to servitude, 
that although of the same color and born of the same parents, 
a far different destiny awaits his more fortunate brother— as 
his thoughts again and again revert to the subject, he begins 
to regard himself as the victim of injustice. Cheerfulness 
and contentment will flee from his bosom ; and the most 
harmless and happy creature that lives on earth, will be 
transformed into a dark, designing and desperate rebel — 
{Brown's Sjyeech, pp. 8, 9.) 

There are some again who exhaust their ingenuity in devis- 
ing schemes for taking off the breeding portion of the slaves 
to Africa, or carrying away the sexes in such disproportions 
as will, in a measure, prevent those left behind from breed- 
ing All of these plans merit nothing more than the appel- 
lation of vain juggling legislative conceits, unworthy of a 
statesman and a moral man. If our slaves are ever to be 
sent away in any systematic manner, humanity demands that 
they should be 'carried in families. The voice of the world 
would condemn Virginia if she sanctioned any plan of depor- 
tation by which the male and female, husband and wife, pa- 
rent and child, were systematically and relentlessly separated. 
If we are to indulge in this kind of regulating vice, why not 
cure the ill at once, by following the counsel of Xenophon in 
his Economics, and the practice of old Cato the Censor ? Let 
us keep the male and female separated* in ergastula or dun- 
geons, if it be necessary, and then one generation will pass 
away, and the evil will be removed to the heart's content of 
our humane philanthropists ! But all these puerile conceits 

* See Hume's Essay on the Populousnesa of Ancient Nations, where 
he ascribes this practice of Cato and others, to prevent their slaves 
i from breeding. 



384 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVEKY. 

tall far short of surmounting the great difficulty which, like 
Memnon, is eternally present and cannot be removed. 

■ Sedet etcrnumqu.- 

There is Blave property of the value of *ioo,000,000 in 

the S ate of Virginia, <fea, and it matters but little how you 

. it, whether b; of the cautious practi- 

. or with the frightful despatch of the Belf-confideaj 

quack ; when it is gone, no matter how, the deed will be 

done, and Virginia will be a d. 

We .-hall now proceed to examine briefly, the most dan- 
gerous <>t' all tin- wild doctrines advano d by the abolitionisfl 
in the Virginia Legislature, and the one which, no doul 
be finally acted upon, if ever this business of emancipation 
shall be seriously commenced. It was contended ihut prm 
2>( ft ;t is the creature of civil » subject to actum 

even to destruction. But Lest we may misrepresent, we will 
give the Ian the gentleman who first boldly and ex- 

ultingly announced it. " M • briefly these," said 

Mr. Faulkner; u tbey go to the foundation upon which the 
social edifice rest — property is the creature of civil society. 
So long as that property is nol dangerous to the good order 
ity, it may and will be tolerated. I'ut, sir, SO BOOH as 
it is ascertained to jeopardize the peace, the happiness, tin- 
good order, nay the very existence of society, from that mo- 
ment the right by which they hold their property is goi 
eicty ceases to give its consent, the condition upon which they 
are permitted to hold it is violated, their right ceases. Why, 
sir, it is ever a rule of municipal law, and we use this merely 
as an illustration of the great principles of society, sic 
tuo ut alienum non hedas. So hold your property as not to 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 385 

injure the property, still less tlie lives and happiness, of your 
', neighbors. And the moment, even in the best regulated 
j communities, there is in practice a departure from this princi- 
i pie, you may abate the nuisance. It may cause loss, but it is 
what our black letter gentlemen term damnum absexue inju- 
, ria, a loss of which the law affords no remedy." Now, for 
the application of these principles : " Sir, to contend that full 
value shall be paid for the slaves by the commonwealth, now, 
or at any future period of their emancipation, is to deny all 
right of action upon this subject whatsoever. It is not within 
the financial ability of a State to purchase them. We have 
not the means — the utmost extremity of taxation would fall 
short of an adequate treasury. What then shall be done ? 
We must endeavor to ascertain some middle ground of com- 
promise between the rights of the community and the rights 
of individuals, some scheme which, while it responds to the 
demands of the people for the extermination of the alarming 
evils, will not in its operations disconcert the settled institu- 
tions of society, or evolve the slaveholder in pecuniary ruin 
and embarrassment." (Faulkner's Speech, pp. 14, 15, 16.) 

To these doctrines we call the serious attention of the whole 
slaveholding population of our Union, for all alike are con- 
cerned. It is time, indeed, for Achilles to rise from his inglo- 
rious repose and buckle on his armor, when the enemy are 
about to set fire to the fleet. This doctrine, absurd as it may 
seem, in the practical application made by the speaker, will 
be sure to become the most popular with those abolitionists in 
Virginia, who have no slave property to sacrifice. It is the 
remark of Ilobbes, that men might easily be brought to deny 
that " things equal to the same are equal to each other," if 
their fancied interests were opposed in any way to the admis- 
sion of the axiom. We find that the highly obnoxious doc- 
trine just spoken of, was not entertained by the gentleman 
S3 



386 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

from Berkeley alone, but was urged to an equally offensive 
extent by Mr. M'Dowell, who is supposed by his friends to 
have made the most able and eloquent speech in favor of 
abolition. lie says, "when it (property) loses its utility, 
when it no longer contributes to the personal benefits and 
wants of its holders in any equal degree with the expense or 
the ri>k, or the danger of keeping it, much more when it jeo- 
pards the security of the public, — when this is the case, then 
the original purpose for which it is authorized is lost, its char- 
acter of property in the just and beneficial sense of it is gone, 
and it may be regulated without private injustice, in any 
manner which the general good of the community, by whose 
laws it was licensed, may require." (AfDowcIFs Speech, 
tee Richmond Whiff, 24th March, 1832.) It is thus, if we 
may borrow the justly indignant language of Mr. Goode's elo- 
quent and forcible speech, that "our property has been com- 
pared to a nuisance which the commonwealth may abate at 
pleasure. A nation of souls to be abated by the mere effort 
of the will of the General Assembly. A nation of freemen to 
hold their property by the precarious tenure of the precarious 
will of the General Assembly ! and to reconcile us to our 
condition, we are assured by the gentleman from Berkeley, 
that the General Assembly, in the abundance of its liberality, 
is ready to enter into a compromise, by which we shall be 
permitted to hold our own property twenty-eight years ! on 
condition that we then surrender it absolutely and uncondi- 
tionally. Sir, I cannot but admire the frankness with which 
these gentlemen have treated this subject. They have exhib- 
ited themselves in the fullness of their intentions ; given us 
warning of their designs ; and we now see in all its naked- 
ness the vanity of all hope of compensation." {Go-ode's 
Speech, p. 29.) 

The doctrine of these gentlemen, so far from being true in 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 38*7 

its application, is not true in theory. The great object of gov- 
ernment is the protection of property ; — from the days of the 
' patriarchs down to the present time, the great desideratum 
i has been to find out the most efficient mode of protecting pro- 
l perty. There is not a government at this moment in Christen- 
dom, whose peculiar practical character is not the result of the 
j state of property. 

No government can exist which does not conform to the 
state of property ; it cannot make the latter conform entirely 
to the government ; an attempt to do it would and ought to 
revolutionize any state. The great difficulty in forming the 
government of any country arises almost universally from the 
state of property, and the necessity of making it to conform to 
that state ; and it was the state of property in Virginia which 
really constituted the whole difficulty in the late Convention. 
There is a right which these gentlemen seem likewise to have 
had in their minds, which writers on the law of nations call the 
right of eminent or transcendental domain ; that right by 
which, in an exigency, the government or its agents may seize 
on persons or property, to be used for the general weal. Now, 
upon this there are two suggestions which at once present 
themselves. First, that this right only occurs in cases of real 
exigency ;* and secondly, that the writers on the national 
law— and the constitution of the United States expressly 
sanctions the principle — say, that no property can be thus 
taken without full and fair compensation.-)- 

* It is, then, the right of necessity, and may be defined that right 
which authorizes the performance of an act absolutely necessary for 
the discharge of an indisputable duty. But private property must al- 
ways be paid for. 

t The Congress of the United States, in the case of Marigny d'Au- 
terive, placed slave property upon precisely the same footing, in this 
respect, with all other kinds. 



388 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

These gentlemen, we hope to prove conclusively before fin- 
ishing, have failed to show the exigency ; and even if they 
have proved that, fckey deny the right of compensation, and 
upon what principle . ; why, that the whole State is not com- 
petent bo afford it, and may therefore justly abate the nui- 
sance. And is it possible that a burthen, in this Christian 
land, is most unfeelingly and remorselessly to be imposed 
upon a portion of the State, which, by the very confession of 
the gentlemen who urge it, could not be borne by the whoa 
without inevitable ruin i Bu( it was the main object of their 
speeches to Bhow, that slave property is valueless, that it is a 
burthen, a nuisance to the owner ; and they seemed most 
anxious t<» enlighten the poor ignorant farmers on this point, 
who hold on with such pertinacity to this kind of properM 
which is inflicting its bitterest sting upon them. Now, is it 
not enough for the slaveholder to reply, that the circumstance 
of the >lave bearing the price of two hundred dollars in the 
market, it an evidence of his value with every one acquainted 
with the element^ of political economy ; that, generally speak- 
ing, the market \alue of the slave is even less than his real 
value ; for no one would like to own and manage slaves unless 
equally or more profitable than other kinds of investments in 
the same community ; and, if this or that owner may be 
pointed out as ruined by this species of property, might we 
not point to merchants, mechanics, lawyers, doctors, and di- 
vines, all of whom have been ruined by their several pursuits ; 
and must all these employments be abated as nuisances to 
satisfy the crude, undigested theories of tampering legislators ? 
" It is remarkable,* 1 we quote the language of the author of 
the Letters of Appomattox, "that this 'nuisance' is more 
offensive in a direct ratio to its distance from the complaining 
party, and in an inverse ratio to the quantity of offending 
matter in his neighborhood ; that a ' magazine of gun-powder 1 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 389 

in the town of Norfolk is a ' nuisance' to the county of Berke- 
ley, and to all the people of the West ! The people of the 
! West, in which there are comparatively few slaves, in which 
I there never can be any great increase of that kind of property, 
because their agriculture does not require it, and because in a 
. great part of their country the negro race cannot be acclima- 
I ted — the people of the West find our slave property in our 
planting country, where it is valuable, a 'nuisance' to them. 
This reverses the proverb, that men bear the ills of others bet- 
ter than their own. I have known men to sell their slave 
property and vest the proceeds in the stocks, and become 
zealous for the abolition of slavery. And it would be a mat- 
ter of curiosity to ascertain (if it could be done) the aggregate 
i number of slaves, held by all the orators and all the printers 
who are so willing to abate the nuisance of slave property held 
by other people. I suspect the census would be very short." 
Letters of Appomattox to the people of Virginia. 

The fact is, it is always a most delicate and dangerous task 
for one set of people to legislate for another, without any 
community of interest. It is sure to destroy the great principle 
of responsibility, and in the end to lay the weaker interest at 
the mercy of the stronger. It subverts the very end for which 
all governments are established, and becomes intolerable, and 
consequently against the fundamental rights of man, whether 
prohibited by the constitution or not. 

If a convention of the whole State of Virginia were called, 
and in due form the right of slave property were abolished by 
the votes of Western Virginia alone, does any one think that 
Eastern Virginia would be bound to yield to the decree ? 
Certainly not. The strong and unjust man in a state of na- 
ture robs the weaker, and you establish government to pre- 
vent this oppression. Now, only sanction the doctrine of 
Virginia orators, let one interest in the government (the West) 
33* 



390 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

rob another at pleasure (the East) ; and is there any man 
who can fail to see that government is systematically produc- 
ing that very oppression for which it is intend* d to remedy, 
and for -which alone it is established ? In forming the late 
Constitution of Virginia, the East objected to the " white basis 
principle," upon the very grounds that it would enable West* 
ern to oppress Eastern Virginia, through the medium of slave 
property. The most solemn MMV< rations of a total unwil- 
lingness, on the part of the West, to meddle with or touch 
the Blare population, beyond the rightful and equitable de- 
mands of revenue, were repeatedly made by their orators. And 
now, what has the lapse of two short years developed ? Why, 
that the West, unmindful of former professions, and regard* 
lest of the eternal principles of justice, is urging on an inva- 
sion and final abolition of that kind of property which it was 
solemnly pledged to protect ! Is it possible that gentlemen 
can have reflected upon the consequences which even the 
avowal of such doctrines are calculated to produce ? Are they 
conciliatory ? Can they be taken kindly by the East \ Is 
it not degrading for freemen to stand quailing with the fear of 
losing that property which they have been accumulating for 
ages, to stand waiting in fearful anxiety for the capricious edict 
of the West, which may say to one man, ''Sir, you must give 
up your property, although you have amassed it under the 
guarantee of the laws and constitution of your State and of the 
United States ;" and to another, who is near him, and has an 
equal amount of property of a different description, and has 
no more virtue and no more conscience than the slaveholder, 
" you may hold yours, because we do not yet con^der it a 
'nuisance';' 1 This is language which cannot fail to awaken 
the people to a sense of their danger. These doctrines, when- 
ever announced in debate, have a tendency to disorganize and 
unhinge the condition of society, and to produce uncertainty 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. S91 

and alarm ;* to create revulsions of capital ; to cause the land 
of Old Virginia, and real source of wealth, to be abandoned; 
and her white wealthy population to flee the State, and seek 
an asylum in a land where they will be protected in the en- 
joyment of the fruits of their industry. In fine, we would say, 
these doctrines are ' nuisances,' and if we were disposed to re- 
taliate, would add that they ought to be ' abated.' We will 
close our remarks on this dangerous doctrine, by calling upon 
Western Virginia and the non-slaveholders of Eastern Virgi- 
nia, not to be allured by the syren song. It is as delusive as 
it may appear fascinating ; all the sources of wealth and de- 
partments of industry, all the great interests of society, are 
really interwoven with one another — they form an indissolu- 
j ble chain ; a blow at any part quickly vibrates through the 
whole length — the destruction of one interest involves anoth- 
er. Destroy agriculture, destroy tillage, and the ruin of the 
farmer will draw down ruin upon the mechanic, the mer- 
chant, the sailor and the manufacturer — they must all flee to- 
gether from the land of desolation. 

We hope we have now satisfactorily proved the impractica- 
bility of sending off the whole of our slave population, or even 
the annual increase ; and we think we have been enabled to 
do this, by pointing out only one-half the difficulties which 
attend the scheme. We have so far confined our attention to 
ths expense and difficulty of purchasing the slaves, and send- 
ing them across the ocean. We have now to look a little to 
the recipient or territory to which the blacks are to be sent ; 

* We look upon these doctrines as calculated to produce precisely 
the same results as are produced by the government of Turkey, which, 
by rendering property insecure, has been able to arrest, and perma- 
nently to repress, the prosperity of the fairest and most fertile portions 
of the srlobe. 



392 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

and if we know any thing of the history and nature of colo- 
nization, we Bhall be completely upheld in the assertion, that 
the difficulties on this scoiv are just as great and insurmount- 
able m those which we have Bhown to be attendant on the 
purchase and deportation. We shall be enabled to prove, if 
we may use the expression, a doable impracticability attend- 
ant on all these schemes. 

*/ The Impossibility of Colonizing the Blacks, — The whole 
subject of colonization is much more difficult and intricate than 
is generally imagined, and the difficulties are often very dif- 
ferent from what would, on Blight reflection, be anticipated. 
They are of three kinds — physical, moral, and national. The 
former embraces unhealthy climate or want of proper season- 
ing ; a difficulty of procuring subsistence and the convenien- 
ces of life ; ignorance of the adaptations and character of the 
soils ; want of habitations, and the necessity of living togeth- 
er in multitudes for the purposes of defence, whilst purposes 
of agriculture require that they should live as dispersed as 
possible. The moral difficulties arise from a want of adapta- 
tion on the part of the new colonists to their new situation, 
want of conformity in habits, manners, tempers, and disposi- 
tions, producing a heterogeneous mass of population, unce- 
mented and unharmonizing. Lastly, the difficulties of a 
national character embrace all the causes of altercation and 
rupture between the colonists and neighboring tribes or 
nations ; all these dangers, difficulties and hardships, are much 
greater than generally believed. Every new colony requires 
the most constant attention, the most cautious and judicious 
management, in both the number and character of the emi- 
grants, a liberal supply of both capital and provisions, togeth- 
er with a most watchful and paternal government on the part 
of the mother country, which may defend it against the incur- 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 393 

sions and depredations of warlike or savage neighbors. Hence, 
the very slow progress made by all colonies in the first settle- 
ments. 

The history of colonization is well calculated of itself to 
dissipate all the splendid visions which our chimerical philan- 
thropists have indulged, in regard to its efficacy in draining 
off a redundant or noxious population. The rage for emigra- 
tion to the New World, discovered by Columbus, was at first 
very considerable ; the brilliant prospects which were present- 
ed to the view of the Spaniards, of realizing fortunes in the 
abundant mines, and on the rich soils of the islands and the 
continent, enticed many at first to leave their homes in search 
of wealth, happiness, and distinction ; and what was the 
consequence ? " The numerous hardships with which the 
members of infant colonies have to struggle," says Robertson, 
" the diseases of unwholesome climates, fatal to the constitu- 
tions of Europeans ; the difficulty of bringing a country 
covered with forests into culture ; the want of hands neces- 
sary for labor in some provinces, and the slow reward of 
industry in all, unless where the accidental discovery of mines 
enriched a few fortunate adventurers, were evils immensely 
felt and magnified. Discouraged by the view of these, the 
spirit of migration was so much damped, that sixty years 
after the discovery of the New "World, the number of Span- 
iards in all its provinces is computed not to have exceeded 
15,000 !"* Even these few were settled at an expense of life, 
both to the emigrants and the natives, which is really shocking 
to the feelings of humanity ; and we cannot peruse the ac- 
counts of the conquests of Mexico and Peru, without feeling 
that the race destroyed was equal, in moral worth at least, to 
their destroyers. 

In the settlement of Virginia, begun by Sir Walter Raleigh, 
* Robertson's America, vol. 2, p. 151. 



394 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVEHY. 

and established by Lord Delaware, three attempts completely 
failed ; nearly half of the first colony was destroyed by the 
savages, and the rest, consumed and worn down by fatigue 
and famine, deserted the country and returned home in de- 
spair. The second colony was cut off to a man, in a manner 
unknown ; but they were supposed to have been destroyed 
by the Indians. The third experienced the same dismal fate; 
and the remains of the fourth, after it had been reduced by 
famine and disease, in the course of ^ix months, from five 
hundred to sixty persons, were returning in a famished aud 
desperate condition to England, when they were met in the 
mouth of the Chesapeake, by Lord Delaware, with a squad- | 
ron loaded with provi>ions, and every tiling for their relief 
and defence.* The first puritans and settlers, in like manner 
suffered " woes unnumbered," — nearly half perished by want, 
scurvy, and the severity of the climate. 

The attempts to settle New Holland, have presented a me- : 
lancholy and affecting picture of the extreme hardships which ' 
infant colonies have to struggle with, before their produce is ! 
even equal to the support of the colonists. The establish- | 
ment of colonies, too, in the eastern part of the Russian do- 
minions, has been attended with precisely the same difficulties 
and hardships. 

After this very brief general review of the history of mod- 
ern colonization, we will now proceed to examine into the 
prospects of colonizing our blacks on the coast of Africa, in 
such numbers as to lessen those left behind. And in the first 
place we will remark, that almost all countries, especially 
those in southern and tropical latitudes, are extremely unfa- 
vorable to life when first cleared and cultivated. Almost the 
whole territory of the United States and South America, offer 

* Malthus on population, given upon the authority of both Burke's 
and Robertson's Virginia. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 395 

i conclusive illustration of this fact. We are daily witnessing, 
in the progress of tillage, in our country, the visitation of 
diseases of the most destructive kind, over regions hitherto 
pntirely exempt ; our bilious fevers, for example, seem to 
travel, in a great measure, with the progress of opening, clear- 
ing, and draining of the country. Now, when we turn our 
attention to Africa, on which continent all agree that we must 
icolonize, if at all, we find almost the whole continent possess- 
ing an insalubrious climate, under the most favorable circum- 
stances ; and, consequently, we may expect this evil will be 
enhanced during the incipient stages of society at any given 
Ipoint, while the progress of clearing, draining, and tilling is 
jgoing forward. All the travellers through Africa agree in 
(their descriptions of the general insalubrity of the climate. 
Park and Buffon agree in stating, that longevity is very rare 
among the negroes. At forty they are described as wrinkled 
and gray haired, and few of them survive the age of fifty-five 
ior sixty. A Shangalla woman, says Bruce, at twenty-two, is 
more wrinkled and deformed by age, than a European at six- 
ty. This short duration of life is attributable to the climate ; 
for in looking over the returns of the census in our country, 
we find a much larger proportional number of cases of long- 
evity among the blacks than the whites. " If accurate regis- 
ters of mortality," says Malthus, (and no one is more indefati- 
gable in his researches or more capable of drawing accurate 
conclusions,) " were kept among those nations, (African,) I 
have little doubt that, including the mortality of wars, one in 
seventeen or eighteen, at least, dies annually, instead of one in 
thirty-four or thirty -six, as in the generality of European 
states."* The sea coast is described as being generally much 
more unhealthy than the interior. " Perhaps it is on this 
account chiefly," says Park, "that the interior countries 
* See Malthus on Population, Book 1, 1.8. 



396 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

abound more with inhabitants than the maritime districts."* 
The deleterious effects of African climate, are of course much 
greater open those accustomed to different latitudes and not 
yet acclimated. It is melancholy, indeed, to peruse the dread- 
ful hardships and unexampled mortality attendant upon those 
companies which have, from time to time, actuated by the 
most praiseworthy views, penetrated into the interior of 
Africa. 

It is difficult to say, which has presented the most obstacles 
to the inquisitive traveller, the suspicion and barbarity of the 
natives, or the dreadful insalubrity of the climate. Now, it is 
to this continent, the original home of our blacks, to this de- 
structive climate, we propose losend the slave of our country 
atbr the lapse of ages has completely inured him to our colder 
and more salubrious continent. It is true, that a territory 
has already been secured for the Colonization Society of this 
country, which is said to enjoy an unusually healthful climate. 
Granting that this may be the case, still when we come to 
examine into the capacity of the purchased territory for the 
reception of emigrants, we find that it only amounts to about 
10,000 square miles, not a seventh of the superfices of Virgi- 
nia. When other sites are fixed upon, we may not, and can- 
not expect to be so fortunate ; are not the most healthy dis- 
tricts in Africa the most populous, according to Park and all 
travellers ? Will not these comparatively powerful nations, in 
all probability, relinquish their territory with great reluctance? 
AVill notour lot be consequently cast on barren sands or amid 
the pestilential atmosphere ; and then what exaggerated tales 
and false statements must be made, if we would reconcile the 
poor blacks to a change of country pregnant with their 
fate? 

* See Tark's Travels in Africa, p. 193, New York Edition. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 



397 



But we believe that the very laudable zeal of many consci- 
entious philanthropists has excited an overweening desire to 
i make our colony in Liberia, in every point of view, appear 
i greatly superior to what it is. We know the disposition of all 
' travellers to exaggerate ; we know the benevolent feelings of 
] the human heart, which prompts us to gratify and minister to 
I the desires and sympathies of those around us, and we know 
. that philanthropic schemes, emancipation and colonization so- 
cieties, now occupy the public mind, and receive the largest 
share of public applause. Under these circumstances we are 
not to wonder if coloring should sometimes impair the state- 
ments of those who have visited the colony ; for ourselves, we 
may be too sceptical, but are rather disposed to judge from 
facts which are acknowledged by all, than from general state- 
ments from officers and interested agents. In 1819, two agents 
were sent to Africa to survey the coast and make a selection of 
a suitable situation for a colony ; in their passage home in 1820, 
one died. In the same year, 1820, the Elizabeth was charter- 
ed and sent out with three agents and eighty emigrants. All 
three of the agents and twenty of the emigrants died, a propor- 
tional mortality greater than in the middle passage, which has 
so justly shocked the human feelings of mankind, and much 
greater than that occasioned by that dreadful plague (the Cho- 
lera) which is now clothing our land in mourning and causing 
our citizens to flee in every direction to avoid impending de- 
struction. In the spring of 1821, four new agents were sent 
out, of whom one returned sick, one died in August, one in Sep- 
tember, and we know not what became of the fourth.* It is 
agreed on all hands, that there is a seasoning necessary, and 

* These facts we have stated upon the authority of Mr. Carey, of 
Philadelphia, who has given us an interesting, but I fear too flattering 
account of the colony, in a series of letters addressed to the Hon. 
Charles E. Mercer. 
34 



398 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

a formidable fever to be encountered, before the colonies can 
enj.v tolerable health. Mr. Ashmun, who afterwards fella 
victim to the climate, insisted that the night air of Liberia was 
free from all noxious effects : and yet we find that the emi- 
grants curried by the Yalador to Liberia, a year or two since, 
are said to have fared well, losing only two, in consequence If 
every precaution having been taken against the night air, 
while the most dreadful mortality destroyi d those of the Caro- 
linian, which went out nearly cotemporaneously with the Va- 
la.lor. The letter of Mr. Reyi olds, marked < ; . at the concM 
sion of the Fifteenth Annual Report of the American Coloni- 
zation Society, instructs as in the proper method of preservin| 
health on the coasi of Africa, and in spite of the flatten™ 
accounts and assurances of ag< nts and ) hilanthropists, we 
should be disposed to take warning from these salutary Lints. 
The following are some of them : 

" 1st. On no account to sutler any of the crew to be out of 
the ship at sunset. 

" 2d. To have a Bail Btretched on the windward side of the 
vessel; and an awning was also provided, which extended ova 
the l OOp and tin- whole main deck, to defend the crew from 
the night air, 

" 3d. The night watch was encouraged to smoke tobacco. 

"4th. To distribute French brandy to the crew whilst in 
port, in lieu of rum. (The (ditor of the re] orl modestly re- 
commends strong coffee.) The crew, on rising, were served 
with a libera] allowance of strong coffee, before commencing 
their day's work. 

"The result was, that the ships on each side of the Cam- 
bridge lost the greater part of their crew ; and not one man of 
her crew were seriously unwell.'" (Fifteenth Annual Re% art, 
p. 54, published in Georgetown, 1832.) 

We have said enough to show that the contiguance of Af- 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 399 

rica, and its coasts particularly, are extremely unhealthy— that 
the natives themselves are not long lived— and that unaccli- 
jmated foreigners are in most imminent danger- That there 
|may be some healthy points on the sea shore, and salubrious 
'districts in the interior, and that Liberia may be fortunately 
one of them, we are even willing to admit -but then we 
know that generally the most insalubrious portion will fell in- 
to our possession, because those of an opposite character are 
already too densely populated to be deserted by the natives— 
and consequently, let us view the subject as we please, we have 
this mighty evif of unhealthy climate to overcome. We have 
seen akeadv, in the past history of our colony, that the slight- 
est blunder, in landing on an unhealthy coast, in exposure to 
a deadly night air, or in neglecting the necessary precautions 
during the period of acclimating, has proved most frightfully 
fatal to both black and whites. Suppose now, that instead of 
the one or two hundred sent by the Colonization Society, Vir- 
ginia should actually send out six thousand— or if we extend 
our views to the whole United States, that sixty thousand 
should be annually exported, accompanied of course by some 
hundreds of whites, what an awful fatality might we not occa- 
sionally expect? The chance for blundering would be infin- 
itely increased, and if some ships might fortunately distribute 
their cargoes with the loss of a few lives, others again might 
lose all their whites and a fourth or more of the blacks, as we 
know has already happened; andaHhough this fatality might 
arise from blunder or accident, yet would it strike the imagi- 
nation of men— and that which may be kept comparatively 
concealed now, would, when the number of emigrants swelled 
to such multitudes, produce alarm and consternation. We 
look confidently to the day, if this wild scheme should be per- 
severed in for a few years, when the poor African slave, on 
bended knee, might implore a remission of that fatal sentence 
which would send him to the land of his forefathers. 



400 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

But the fact is, that all climates will prove fatal to emigrants 
who come out in too great crowds, whether they are naturally 
unhealthy or not. One of the greatest attempts at coloniza- 
tion in modern times, was the effort of the French to plant at 
once 12,000 emigrants on the coast of Guiana. The conse- 
quence was, that in a very short time 10,000 of them lost 
their lives in all the horrors of despair, 2,000 returned to 
France, the scheme failed, and 25,000,000 of francs, says Ray- 
nal, were totally lost. Seventy-five thousand christians, says 
Mr. Eaton in his account of the Turkish empire, were expelled 
by Russia from the Crimea, and forced to inhabit the country 
deserted by the ETogai Tartars, and in a few years only 7,000 
of them remained. In like manner, if 6,000, or much more> 
if 60,000 negroes, with careless and filthy habits, were annu- 
ally sent to Africa, we could not calculate, for the first one or 
two years, upon less than the death of one-half or perhaps 
three-fourths ; and, repugnant as the assertion may be to the 
feelings of benevolence, we have no hesitation in saying, that 
nothing but a most unparalleled mortality among the emi- 
grants would enable us to support the colony for even a year 
or two. Aristotle was of opinion, that the keeping of 5,000 
soldiers in idleness would ruin an empire. If the brilliant an- 
ticipations of our colonization friends shall be realized, and the 
day actually arrives, when 60,000, or even 6,000 blacks can 
b" annually landed in health upon the cost of Africa, then will 
the United States, or broken down Virginia, be obliged to 
support an empire in idleness. " The first establishment of a 
new colony," sa} T s Malthus, " generally presents an instance of 
a country peopled considerably beyond its actual produce; and 
the natural consequence seems to be, that this population, if 
not amplv supplied by the mother country, should, at the com- 
mencement, be diminished to the level of the first scanty pro- 
ductions, and not begin permanently to increase till the re- 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 401 

maining numbers had so far cultivated the soil as to make it 
yield a quantity of food more than sufficient for their own sup- 
port, and which consequently they could divide with a family. 
The frequent failures of new colonies tend strongly to show 
the order of precedence between food and population."* It 
is for this reason the colonies so slowly advance at first, and it 
becomes necessary to feed (if we may so express ourselves) 
■with extreme caution, and with limited numbers, in the begin- 
ning. But a few additional mouths will render support from 
the mother country necessary. If this state of things con- 
tinues for a short time, you make the colony a great pauper 
establishment, and generate all those habits of idleness and 
worthlessness which will ever characterize a people dependent 
on the bounty of others for their subsistence. If Virginia should 
send out 6,000 emigrants to Africa, and much more, if the 
United States should send out 60,000, the whole colony would 
inevitably perish, if the wealth of the mother country was not 
exhausted for their supply. Suppose a member in Congress 
should propose to send out an army of 60,000 troops, and 
maintain them on the coast of Africa ; would not every sen- 
sible man see at once that the thing would be impracticable, 
if even the existence of our country depended upon it ? — it 
would ruin the greatest empire on the globe — and yet, strange 
to tell, the philanthropists of Virginia are seriously urging her 
to attempt that which would every year impose upon her a bur- 
then proportionally greater than this ! 

If any man will for a moment revert to the history of Liberia, 
which has been as flourishing or even more flourishing than 
similar colonies, there will be seen at once enough to convince 
the sceptical of the truth of this assertion. What says Mr. Ash- 
ibud, perhaps the most intelligent and most judicious of colonial 

* Malthus on Population, vol. 2, pp. HO, 141. 
34* 



402 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

agents ? " If rice grew spontaneously, " said lie, " and covered 
the country, yet it is possible by sending few or none able to 
reap and clean it, to starve 10,000 helpless children and infirm 
old people in the midst of plenty. Rice does not grow spon- 
taneously, however; nor can any thing necessary for the sub- 
sistence of the human species be procured here without the 
sweat of the brow. Clothing, tools, and building materials are 
much dearer here than in America. But send out emigrants, 
laboring men and their families only, or laborious men and 
their families, accompanied only with their natural proportion 
of inefficient^ ; and with the ordinary blessings of God, you 
may depend on their causing you a light expense in Liberia," 
&c. Again, " if such persons, (those who cannot work,) are 
to be supported by American funds, why not keep them in 
America, where they can do something by picking cotton and 
stemming tobacco, towards supporting themselves ? I know 
that nothing is effectually done in colonizing this country, till 
the colony's own resources can sustain its own, and a consid- 
erable annual increase of population." Here then are state- 
ments from one of the most zealous and enthusiastic in the 
cause of colonization, one who has sacrificed his life in the 
business, which clearly show, that the Colonization Society, 
with its very limited means, has ever supplied the colony with 
emigrants. What then might not be expected from the tre- 
mendous action of the State and General Government on this 
subject 1 they would raise up a pauper establishment, which, 
we conscientiously believe, would require the disposable wealth 
of the rest of the world to support, and the thousands of emi- 
grants who would be sent, so far from being laborious men, 
would be the most idle and worthless of a race, who only de- 
sire liberty because they regard it as an exemption from labor, 
and toil. Every man, too, at all conversant with the subject, 
knows that such alone are the slaves which a kind master will 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 403 

ever consent to sell, to be carried to a distant land. Sixty 
thousand emigrants per annum to the United States, would 
even now sink the wages of labor, and embarrass the whole 
of our industrious classes, although we have at this moment 
lands capable of supporting millions more when gradually 
added to our population. 

The Irish emigrants to Great Britain, have already begun 
to produce disastrous effects. " I am firmly persuaded," says 
Mr. McCulloch, " that nothing so deeply injurious to the char- 
acter and habits of our people, has ever occurred, as the late 
extraordinary influx of Irish laborers. If another bias be not 
given to the current of emigration, Great Britain will necessa- 
rily continue to be a grand outlet for the pauper population of 
Ireland, nor will the tide of beggary and degradation cease to 
flow, until the plague of poverty has spread its ravages over 
both divisions of empire."* Where, then, in the wide world, 
can we find a fulcrum upon which to place our mighty lever 
of colonization ? nowhere ! we repeat it, nowhere ! unless we 
condemn emigrants to absolute starvation. Sir Josiah Childe, 
who lived in an age of comparative ignorance, could well have 
instructed our modern philanthropists in the true principles of 
colonization. " Such as our employment is" says he, " so will 
our people be ; and if we should imagine we have in England 
employment but for one hundred people, and we have born 
and bred (or he might have added brought) amongst us one 
hundred and fifty — fifty must flee away from us, or starve, or be 
hanged to prevent it."f And so say we in regard to our colo- 
nization ; if our new colony cannot absorb readily more than 
one or two hundred per annum, and we send them 6,000 or 
60,000, the surplus "must either flee away, or starve, or be 

* McCulloch's Wealth of Nations, 4th vol. pp. 154, 55. Edinburgh 
Edition, 
t Sir Josiah Childe's Discourse on Trade. 



404 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

hanged," or be fed by the mother country, (which is impos- 
sible.) 

So far we have been attending principally to the difficulties 
of procuring subsistence ; but the habits and moral character 
of our slaves prevent others of equal importance and magni- 
tude. Dr. Franklin says that one of the reasons why we see 
so many fruitless attempts to settle colonies at an immense 
public and private expense by several of the powers of Europe, 
is that moral and mechanical habits adapted to the mother 
country, are frequently not so to the new settled one, and to 
external events, many of which are unforeseen; that it is to be 
remarked that none of the English colonies became any way 
considerable, till the necessary manners were born and grew 
up in the country. Xow with what peculiar and overwhelm- 
ing force docs this remark apply to our colonization of liberated 
blacks \ We are to send out thousands of these, taken from 
a state of slavery and ignorance, unaccustomed to guide and 
direct themselves, void of all the attributes of free agents, with 
dangerous notions of liberty and idleness, to elevate them at 
once to the condition of freemen, and invest them with the 
power of governing an empire, which will require more wis- 
dom, more prudence, and at the same time more firmness, than 
ever government required before. We are enabled to support 
our position by a quotation from an eloquent supporter of the 
American colonization scheme. " Indeed," said the Rev. Mr. 
Bacon, at the last meeting of the American Colonization So- 
ciety, "it is something auspicious, that in the earlier stages of 
our undertaking, there has been a general rush of emigration 
to the colony. In any single year since Cape Montserado w T as 
purchased, the influx of a thousand emigrants might have 
been fatal to our enterprise. The new-comers into any com- 
munity must always be a minority, else every arrival is a revo- 
lution ; they must be a decided minority, easily absorbed in 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 405 

the system and mingled with the mass, else the community 
is constantly liable to convulsion. Let 10,000 foreigners, rude 
, and ignorant, be landed at once in this district (of Columbia), 
i and what would be the result? Why you must have an arm- 
i ed force here to keep the peace — so one thousand now landing 
! at once in our colony, might be its ruin."* 

The fact is, the true and enlightened friends of colonization 
must reprobate all those chimerical schemes proposing to de- 
port anything like the increase of one State, and more particu- 
larly of the whole United States. The difficulty just explained, 
has already been severely felt in Liberia, though hitherto sup- 
plied very scantily with emigrants, and those generally the 
most exemplary of the free blacks ; thus, in 1 828, it was the de- 
cided opinion of Mr. Ashmun, " that for at least two years to 
come, a much more discriminating selection of settlers must 
be made, than ever has been — even in the first and second ex- 
peditions by the Elizabeth and Nautilus, in 1820 and '21, or 
that the prosperity of the colony will inevitably and rapidly 
decline? Now, when to all these difficulties we add the pros- 
pect of frequent wars with the natives of Africa,f the great ex- 
pense we must incur to support the colony, and the anomolous 
position of Virginia, an imperium in imperio, holding an em- 
pire abroad, we do not see how the whole scheme can be pro- 
nounced anything less than a stupendous piece of folly. 

The progress of the British colony at Sierra Leone is well 
calculated to illustrate the great difficulties of colonizing ne- 
groes on the coast of Africa : and we shall at once present our 
readers with a brief history of this colony, given by one who 
seems to be a warm advocate of colonization, and, consequent- 
ly, disposed to present the fact in the most favorable aspect. 

* See Fifteenth Annual Report of American Colonization Society, 
p. 10. 

f The colony has already had one conflict with the natives, in which 
it had liked to be overwhelmed. 



40G PROFESSOR DKW OX SI.AVF.KV. 

On the 8th of April, 1787, 400 negroes and Go European 
Bailed from England, supplied with provisions for sis • 
months, for Sierra Leone. Now mark the consequences: — I 
''The result was unfortunate and even discouraging. The 
erowdi ? condition of the transports, the unfavorabU season at 
which they arrived on the coast, and the intemperance and im- 
prudence of the emigrants, brought on a mortality which re- 
duced their numbers nearly one-half during the first year, 

>n after landing, until forty individuals 
remained. In 1788, Mr. Sharp sent out 39 more, and tl 
number of the deserters returned, and the settlement gradual' 
ly gained Btrength. But during the next year, a controversy 
with a neighboring nativt chiefs endedin wholly dispersing the 
colony; and some time elapsed before the remnants could he 
again collected. A charter of incorporation v*;is obtained in 
lT'.M. Not long afterwards, about 1,200 new emigrants were 
introduced, being originally refugees from this country, (U, 
who had placed themselves under British protec- 
tion. Still, affaire were very badly managed. One-tenthoi 
the Nova Scotians, and half of the Europeans, died during 
one season, as much from want of provisions as any other 
cause. Two years afterwards, a Btore-ship belonging to the 
company, which had been made the receptacle of African pro- 
due, was loci by fire, with a cargo valued at £15,000. Then 
insurrections arose among the blacks! Worst of all, in 
L794, a large French Bquadron, wholly without provisions, nt- 
tacked the settlement, and although the colore were immediate- 
ly struck, proceeded to an indiscriminate pillage.* . . . 
(Some vcars) afterward-, a large number of the worst part of 

* We would beg leave most respectfully to ask our Virginia abolitionists, 
how an insult of this character offered to any colony which we might es- 
tablish in Africa, would be resented ? Would the Nation of Virginia de- 
clare war on the aggressor? and if she did, where would be her navy, 
her sailors, her soldiers, and the constitutionality of the act ? 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 40*7 

the settlers, chiefly the Nova Scotians, rebelled against the Co- 
lonial Government. The Governor called in the assistance of 
jthe neighboring African tribes, and matters were on the eve 
\ of a battle, when a transport arrived in the harbor, bring- 
ing 550 Maroons from Jamaica. Lots of land were given to 
these men ; they proved regular and industrious, and the in- 
surgents laid down their arms. Wars next ensued with the 
natives, which were not finally concluded until 1807. On the 
first January, 1808, all the rights and possessions of the com- 
pany were surrendered to the British Crown ; and in this situa- 
tion they have ever since remained." [See T6//i No. of the 
North American Rev i etc, p,p>. 120 and 121.] The progress 
of the colony since 1808, has been as little flattering as before 
that period ; and even Mr. Everett, before the Colonization So- 
ciety in Washington, has been forced to acknowledge its fail- 
ure. [See Mr. Everett' 's Speech, 15th Anr.ual Report^] 

Thus this negro colony at Sierra Leone illustrates, most fully, 
the fearful and tremendous difficulties which must ever attend 
every infant colony formed on the coast of Africa. During 
the brief period of its existence, it has been visited by all the 
plagues that colonial establishments " are heir to." It has 
been cursed with the intemperance, imprudence, and desertion 
of the colonists, with want of homogeneous character, and con- 
sequent dissentions, civil wars and insurrections. It has ex- 
perienced famines, and suffered insult and pillage. Its num- 
bers have been thinned by the blighting climate of Africa. 
Its government has been wretched, and it has been almost 
continually engaged in war with the neighboring African 
tribes.* 

* Perhaps it may be said, that all these things may be avoided in 
our colonies, by wise management and proper caution. To this we 
answer, that in speculating upon the destiny of multitudes or nations, 
we must embrace within our calculation all the elements as they ac- 



408 TROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

Some have supposed that the circumstance of the Africans 
being removed a stage or two above the savages of North 
America, will render the colonization of Africa much easier 
than that of America. We draw directly the opposite con- 
clusion. The Indians of North America had nowhere taken 
p iBsession of the soil; they were wanderers over the face of 
the country ; their titles could be extinguished for slight con- 
Biderations; and it is ever melancholy to reflect that their 
habits of improvidence and of intoxication, and even their cruel 
practices in war, have all been (such has been for them the 
woful march of events) favorable to the rapid increase of the 
whites, who have thus been enabled to exterminate the red 
men, and take their pla 

The natives of Africa exist in the rude agricultural state, 
much more numerously than the natives of America. Their 
titles to land will be extinguished with much more difficulty 
and expense. The very first contact with our colony will car- 
ry to them the whole art and implement of war.* As our 

tually exist, civil, political, moral and physical, and our deductions to 
be true, must be taken not from the beau ideal which a vivid imagina- 
tion may sketch out, but from the average of concomitant circumstances. 
It would be a poor apology which a statesman could offer, for the fail- 
ure of a certain campaign which he had planned, to .say that he had 
calculated that every officer in the army waa a Napoleon or a C 
and that every regiment was equal to Caesar's 10th Legion or the Im- 
perial Guard of Napoleon. The physicians say there is not much dan- 
ger to be apprehended from Cholera, when due caution and prudence 
are exercised. Yet, we apprehend it would be a very unfair conclu- 
sion if we were to assert, that when the Cholera breaks out in Charles- 
ton there will not be one single death ; and yet we have just as much 
right to make this assertion, as to say that our colony in Africa will be 
free from all the accidents, plagues and calamities, to which all such 
establishments have ever been subjected. 

* Powder and fire-arms formed material items in the purchase of 
Liberia. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 



409 



colonists spread and press upon them, border wars will arise ; 
and in vain will the attempt be made to extirpate the African 
nations, as we have the Indian tribes : every inhabitant of Li- 
beria who is taken prisoner by his enemy, will be consigned ac- 
cording to the universal practice of Africa, to the most wretch- 
ed slavery, either in Africa or the West Indies. And what 
(will our colony do ? Must they murder, while their enemies 
enslave ? Oh, no, it is too cruel, and will produce barbarizing 
land exterminating wars ? Will they spare the prisoners of 
war? No! There does not and never will exist a people on 
earth, who would tamely look on and see their wives, mothers, 
brothers and sisters, ignominiously enslaved, and not resent 
the insult. What, then, will be done \ Why, they will be 
certain to enslave too ; and if domestic slavery should be in- 
terdicted in the colony, it would be certain to encourage the 
slave trade ;* and if we could ever look forward to the time 
when the slave trade should be destroyed, then the throwing 
back of this immense current upon Africa would inundate all 
the countries of that region. It would be like the checking 
of the emigration from the northern hives upon the Roman 
| world. The northern nations, in consequence of this check, 
soon experienced all the evils of a redundant population, and 
broke forth with their redundant numbers in another quarter ; 
both England and France were overrun, and the repose of all 
Europe was again disturbed. So, would a sudden check to 
jl the African slave trade, cause the redundant population of Af- 
rica to break in, like the Normans and the Danes, on the 
abodes of civilization situated in their neighborhood. Let, 
then, the real philanthropist ponder over these things, and 
tremble for the fate of colonies which may be imprudently 
* We fear our colony at Liberia is not entirely free from this stain 
even now ; it is well known that the British colony at Sierra Leone has 
frequently aided the slave trade. 
35 



410 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

planted on the African soil. The history of the world has too 
conclusively shown, that two races, differing in manners, cus- 
toms, language, and civilization, can never harmonize upon a 
footing of equality. One must rule the other, or extermina- 
ting wars must be waged. In the case of the savages of N< .rth 
America, we have been successful in exterminating them ; but 
in the case of African nations, we do think, from a view of 
til.- whole subject, that our colonists will most probably be 
the victims ; but the alternative is almost equally shocking 
should this not be the case. They must then be the extendi 
nators or enslavers of all the nations of Africa with which 
they come in contact. The whole history of colonization, in- 

presents one of the most gloomy and horrific pictures to 
the imagination of the genuine philanthropist, which can pos- 
sibly be conceived. The many Indians who have been mur- 
di red, or driven in despair from the haunts and hunting 
grounds of their fathers — the heathen driven from his herit- 
age, or hurried into the presence of his God in the full blossom 
of all his heathenish sins — the cruel slaughter of Ashantees — 
the murder of Burmese — all, «U but too eloquently tell the 
misery and despair portended by the advance of civilization to 

\ age and the pagan, whether in America, Africa or Asia. 
In the very few cases where the work of desolation ceased, 
and a commingling of races ensued, it has been found that 
th«- civilized man has Mink down to the level of barbarism, and 
there has ended the mighty work of civilization ! Such are 
the melancholy pictures which sober reason is constrained to 
draw of the future destinies of our colony in Africa. And what, 
then, will become of that grand and glorious idea of carrying 
religion, intelligence, industry, and the arts, to the already 
wronged and injured African ? It is destined to vanish, and 
prove worse than mere delusion. The rainbow of promise 
will be swept away, and we shall awake at last to all the sad 



PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 411 

realities of savage warfare and increasing barbarism. TVe 
Lave thus stated some of the principal difficulties and dangers 
iaccompanying a scheme of colonization, upon a scale as large 
las proposed in the Virginia Legislature. We have said enough 
to show, that if we ever send off 6,000 per annum, we must 
incur an expense far beyond the purchase money. 

The expense of deportation to Africa we have estimated at 
(thirty dollars ; but when there is taken into the calculation 
the further expense of collecting in Virginia,* of feeding, pro- 

* Even supposing the number of blacks to be annually deported 
should ever be fixed by the State, the difficulty of settling upon a proper 
plan of purchase and collection will be infinitely greater than any man 
would be willing to admit, who has not seriously reflected on the sub- 
Iject, and the apple of discord will be thrown into the Virginia Legisla- 
ture the moment it shall ever come to discuss the details. Suppose, for 
example, six thousand are to be sent off annually ; will you send negro 
buyers through the country to buy up slaves wherever they can be 
bought, until six thousand are purchased ! If you do, you will inevita- 
bly gather together the very dregs of creation, the most vicious, the 
most worthless, and the most idle, for these alone will be sold ! — a fright- 
ful population, whose multitudes, when gathered together and poured 
upon the infant settlements in Africa, will be far more destructive than 
the lava flood from the volcano. Again, some portions of the State 
might sell cheaper than others, and an undue proportion of slaves would 
be purchased from these quarters, and cause the system to operate un- 
equally. Will you divide the State into sections, and purchase from 
each according to black population? Then, what miserable sectional 
controversies should we have in the State? What dreadful grumbling 
in the west? Moreover, the same relative numbers abstracted from a 
very dense and very sparse population, will produce a very different 
effect on the labor market. Thus, we will suppose along the margin of 
the James River, from Richmond to Norfolk, the blacks are twenty for 
one white, and that in some country beyond the Blue Ridge, this propor- 
tion is reversed. Suppose, further, that a twentieth of the blacks are to 
be bought up and sent off, this demand will have but a slight effect ou 
the labor market in the country beyond the Ridge, because it calls for 
only one in four hundred of the population ; whereas the effect should 



412 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

tecting,'&c, in Africa, the amount swells beyond all calcula- 
tion. Mr. Tazewell, in his able report on the colonization of 
free people on the African coast, represents this expense as 
certainly amounting to one hundred dollars; and, judging 
from actual experience, was disposed to think two hundred 
dollars would fall below the fair estimate. If the Virginia 
scheme shall ever be adopted, we have no doubt that both 
these estimates will fall below the real expense. The annual cost 
of removing six thousand, instead of being $1,380,000, will 
swell beyond £2,400,000, — an expense sufficient to destroy the 
entire value of the whole property of Virginia. Voltaire, in 
his Philosophical Dictionary, has said, that such is the inhe- 
rent and preservative vigor of nations, that governments can- 
not possibly ruin them ; that almost all governments which 
have been established in the world had made the attempt, 
but had failed. If the sage of France had lived in our days, 
he would haw had a receipt furnished By some of our philan- 
thropists, by which this work might have been accomplished! 
We read in Holy Writ of one great emigration from the land 
of Egypt, and the concomitant circumstances should bid us 
well beware of an imitation, unless assisted by the constant 
presence of Jehovah. Ten plagues were sent upon the land 
of Egypt before Pharaoh would consent to part with the Is- 
raelites, the productive laborers of his kingdom. But a short 
time convinced him of the heavy loss which he sustained by 

be great along the James River, as it would take away one in twenty- 
one of the population. The slaves, in every section, would command 
a different price, tmd we would be obliged to establish our Octroi and 
Douanier, and tax or prevent the migration of negroes from one section 
to another. But we will not pursue further the examination of mere 
details, which do not fall within our original design. It will be discov- 
ered from even a slight analysis, that every single branch of this gigantic 
scheme of folly, like the teeth of the fabled dragon, will bring you forth 
an armed man to an est your progress. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 413 

their removal, and lie gave pursuit ; but God was present 
with the Israelites. He parted the waters of the Red Sea 
for their passage, and closed them over the Egyptians. He 
led on his chosen people through the wilderness, testifying 
his presence in a pillar of fire by night, and a cloud of smoke 
by day. He supplied them with manna in their long jour- 
ney, sending a sufficiency on the sixth for that and the sev- 
enth day. When they were thirsty, the rocks poured forth 
waters, and when they finally arrived in the land of promise, 
after the loss of a generation, the mysterious will of heaven 
had doomed the tribes of Canaan to destruction ; fear and 
apprehension coufounded all their counsels ; their battlements 
j sunk down at the trumpet's sound ; the native hosts, under 
heaven's command, were all slaughtered ; and the children of 
Israel took possession of the habitations and property of the 
slaughtered inhabitants. The whole history of this emigra- 
tion beautifully illustrates the great difficulties and hardships 
of removal to foreign lands of multitudes of people. And as 
a citizen of Virginia, we can never consent to so grand a 
scheme of colonization on the coast of Africa, until it is sanc- 
tioned by a decree of heaven, made known by signs, far more 
intelligible than an eclipse and greenness of the sun — till 
manna shall be rained down for the subsistence of our black 
emigrants — till seas shall be parted, and waters flow from 
rocks for their accommodation — till we shall have a leader 
like Moses, who, in the full confidence of all his piety and reli- 
gion, can, in the midst of all the appalling difficulties and ca- 
lamities by which he may be surrounded, speak forth to his 
murmuring people, in the language of comfort, " Fear ye not, 
stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will 
shew to you to-day." 

But, say some, if Virginia cannot accomplish this work, let 
us call upon the General Government for aid — let Hercules 
35* 



414 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

be requested to put his shoulders to the wheels, and roll us 
through the formidable quagmire of our difficulties. Delu- 
sive prospect ! Corrupting scheme ! We will throw all con- 
stitutional difficulties out of view, and ask if the Federal Gov- 
ernment can be requested to undertake the expense for Vir- 
ginia, without encountering it for the whole slaveholding 
population ? And then, whence can be drawn the funds to 
purchase more than 2,000,000 of slaves, worth at the lowest 
calculation $400,000,000 ; or if the increase alone be sent off, 
can Congress undertake annually to purchase at least GO, 000 
slaves, at an expense of 812,000,000, and deport and colonize 
them at an expense of twelve or fifteen millions more?* But 
the fabled hydra would be more than realized in this project. 
We have no doubt that if the United States in good faith 
should enter into the slave markets of the country, determin- 
ed to purchase up the whole annual increase of our slaves, so 
unwise a project, by its artificial demand, would immediately 
produce a rise in this property, throughout the whole south- 
ern country, of at least 33J per cent. It would stimulate and 
invigorate the spring of black population, which, by its tre- 
mendous action, would set at nought the puny efforts of man, 
and, like the Grecian matron, unweave in the night what had 
been woven in the day. We might well calculate upon an 
annual increase of at least four and a half per cent, upon our 
two millions of slaves, if ever the United States should create 
the artificial demand which we have just spoken of; and then, 
instead of an increase of 60,000, there will be 90,000, bearing the 
average price of 8300 each, making the enormous annual expense 
of purchase alone 827,000,000 ! and difficulties, too, on the 
side of the colony, would more than enlarge with the increase 

* We must recollect, that the expense of colonizing increases much 
more rapidly than in proportion to the simple increase of the number of 
emigrants. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 415 

of the evil at home. Our Colonization Society has been more 
than fifteen years at work ; it has purchased, according to its 
funds, a district of country as congenial to the constitution of 
the black as any in Africa ; it has, as we have seen, frequent- 
ly over-supplied the colony with emigrants ; and mark the re- 
sult, for it is worthy of all observation, there now are not 
more than 2000 or 2500 inhabitants in Liberia! And these 
are alarmed lest the Southampton insurrection may cause such 
an emigration as to inundate the colony. When, then, in the 
lapse of time, can we ever expect to build up a colony which 
can receive sixty or ninety thousand slaves per annum ? And if 
this should ever arrive, what guarantee could be furnished us 
that their ports would always be open to our emigrants ? 
Would law or compact answer ? Oh, no ! Some legislator, 
in the plenitude of his wisdom, might arise, who could easily 
and truly persuade his countrymen that these annual impor- 
tations of blacks were nuisances, and the laws of God, what- 
ever might be those of men, would justify their abatement. 
And the drama would be wound up in this land of promise 
and expectation, by turning the cannon's mouth against the 
liberated emigrant and deluded philanthropist. The scheme 
of colonizing our blacks on the coast of Africa, or anywhere 
else, by the United States, is thus seen to be more stupen- 
dously absurd than even the Virginia project. King Canute, 
the Dane, seated on the sea shore, and ordering the rising 
flood to recede from his royal feet, was not guilty of more 
vanity and presumption than the Government of the United 
States would manifest, in the vain effort of removing and 
colonizing the annual increase of our blacks. So far from 
being able to remove the whole annual increase every year, 
we shall not be enabled to send off a number sufficiently 
great to check even the geometrical rate of increase. Our 
black population is now producing 60,000 per annum, and 



41 G PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

next year we must add to tins sum 1,800, which the incre- 
ment alone is capable of producing, and the year after, the 
increment upon the increment, <tc. Now, let us throw out of 
view, for a moment, the idea of grappling with the whole 
annual increase, and see whether by colonization we can ex- 
pect to turn this geometrical increase into an arithmetical one. 
We will th.ii take the annual increase, 60,000, as our capital, 
and it will be necessary to send off the increase upon this 
1800, to prevent the geometrical increase of the whole black 
population. Let us, then, for a moment, inquire whether the 
abolitionists can expect to realize this petty advantage. 

Mr. Bacon admits, that 1,000 emigrants now thrown on 
Liberia, would ruin it. We believe that every reflecting so- 
ber member of the Colonization Society will acknowledge 
that 500 annually, are fully as many as the colony can now 
receive. We will assume this number, though no doubt 
greatly beyond the truth ; and we will admit further, (what 
we could easily demonstrate to be much too liberal a conces- 
sion,) that the capacity of the colony for the reception of emi- 
grants may be made to enlarge in a geometrical ratio, equal 
to that of the rate of increase of the blacks in the United 
States. Now, with these very liberal concessions on our part, 
let us examine into the eflect of the colonization scheme. At 
the end of the first year, we shall have for the amount of the 
60,000, increasing at the rate of three and a half per cent., 
61,800 ; and subtracting 500, we shall begin the second year 
with the number of 61,300, which, increasing at the rate of 
three and a half per centum, gives 63,139 for the amount at 
the end of the second year. Proceeding thus, we obtain, at 
the end of twenty-five years, for the amount of the 60,000, 
101,208. The number taken away, that is the sum of 
500 + 500 X 1,003 + 500 X 1,003, etc., will be 18,197. It 
is thus seen, that in spite of the efforts of the colonization 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 417 

scheme, the bare annual increase of our slaves will produce 
41,208 more than can be sent off; which number, of course, 
! must be added to the capital of 60,000 ; and long, very long, 
i before the colony in Africa, upon our system of calculation, 
even could receive the increase upon this accumulating capi- 
tal, its capacity as a recipient would be checked by the limi- 
tation of territory, and the rapid filling up of the population, 
both by emigration and natural increase. And thus, by a 
simple arithmetical calculation, we may be convinced that the 
effort to check even the geometrical rate of increase, by send- 
ing off the increment upon the annual increase, of our slaves, 
is greatly more than we can accomplish, and must inevitably 
terminate in disappointment — more than realizing the fable 
of the frog and the ox ; for in this case we should have the 
frog swelling, not for the purpose of rivalling the ox in size, 
but to swallow him down, horns and all ! 

Seeing, then, that the effort to send away the increase, on 
even the present increase of our slaves, must be vain and 
fruitless, how stupendously absurd must be the project, pro- 
posing to send off the whole increase, so as to keep down the 
negro population at its present amount ! There are some 
things which man, arrayed in all his " brief authority," can- 
not accomplish, and this is one of them. Colonization schem- 
ers, big and busy in the management of all their little ma- 
chinery, and gravely proposing it as an engine by which our 
black population may be sent to the now uncongenial home 
of their ancestors, across an ocean of thousands of miles in 
width, but too strongly remind us of the vain man who, in 
all the pomp and circumstance of power, ordered his servile 
attendants to stop the rise of ocean's tide, by carrying off its 
accumulating waters. Emigration has rarely checked the 
increase of population, by directly lessening its number ; it 
can only do it by the abstraction of capital, and by paralyzing 



418 TROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

the spring of population, and then it blights and withers the 
prosperity of the land. The population of Europe has not 
been thinned by emigration to the new world — the province 
of Andalusia, in Spain, which sent out the greatest number of 
(■migrants to the Islands, and to Mex'co and Peru, has been 
precisely the district in Spain which has increased its popu- 
lation most rapidly. Ireland now sends forth a greater num- 
ber of emigrants than any other country in the world, and yet 
the population of Ireland is now increasing faster than any 
other population of Europe I 

"We hope we have now said enough of these colonization 
schemes to show that we can never expect to send off our 
black population, by their means— and we cannot conclude 
without addressing a word of caution to the generous sons of 
the Old Dominion. It behooves them well to beware with 
what intent they look to the Federal Government for aid in 
the accomplishment of these delusive — these impracticable 
projects. The guileful tempter of our original parents se- 
duced them with the offer of an apple, which proved their 
heaviest curse, drove them from the garden of Eden, and de- 
stroyed for ever their state of innocence and purity. Let 
Virginia beware, then, that she be not tempted by the apple, 
to descend from that lofty eminence which she h;is hitherto 
occupied in our confederacy, and sacrifice upon the altar of 
misconceived interests those pure political principles by which 
she has hitherto been so proudly characterized. This whole 
question of emancipation and deportation is but too well cal- 
culated to furnish the political lever, by which Virginia is to 
be prised out of her natural and honorable position in the 
Union, and made to sacrifice her noble political creed. We 
have witnessed with feelings of no common kind, the almost 
suppliant look cast towards the General Government, by some 
of the orators in the Virginia debate. It has pained us to 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 419 

read speeches, and pamphlets, and newspaper essays, suggest- 
ing changes in the constitution, or at once boldly imploring, 
without such changes, the action of the Federal Government. 
Unless the sturdy patriots of Virginia stand forth, we fear, in- 
deed, that her noble principles will be swept away by the tide 
of corruption. The agitation of the slave question in the last 
Virginia Legislature, has already begun the work, and the 
consent of Virginia to receive Federal aid in the scheme of 
emancipation and deportation would complete it. As long as 
a State relies upon its own resources, and looks to no foreign 
quarter for aid or support, so long does she place herself 
without the sphere of temptation, and preserve her political 
virtue. This is one principal reason why Virginia has pro- 
duced so many disinterested patriots. We will go further 
still ; the generous, disinterested and noble character of south- 
ern politicians generally, is, in a great measure, attributable 
to this very cause. The South has hitherto had nothing to 
ask of the Federal Government — she has been no dependant, 
no expectant at the door of the Federal Treasury — she has 
never, therefore, betrayed the interest of the Union, for some 
paltry benefit to herself. But let her once consent to suppli- 
cate the aid of the General Government on this slave ques- 
tion — and that moment will she sacrifice her high political 
principles, and become a dependant on that government. 
When Virginia shall consent to receive this boon, her hands 
will be tied for ever, the emancipating interest will be added 
to the internal improvement and ta riff interests, and Virginia 
can no more array herself against the torrent of Federal op- 
pression. Hitched to the car of the Federal Government, she 
will be so ignominiously dragged forward, a conscience-strick- 
en partner in the unholy alliance for oppression ; and in that 
day, the genuine patriot may well cast a longing, lingering 
look back to the days of purer principles, and " sigh for the 



420 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

loss of Eden." And in this melancholy, saddening retrospect, 
lie will not have the poor consolation left, of seeing his noble 
State reap the paltry reward, which had so fatally tempted 
her to an abandonment of her principles. Can any reflecting 
man, for a moment, believe that the North and West, form- 
ing the majority of our Confederacy, would ever seriously con- 
sent to that enormous expenditure which would be necessary 
to carry into effect this gigantic colonization scheme — a 
scheme whose direct operation would be, to take away that 
very labor, which now bears the burthen of federal exactions 
— a scheme whose operation would be to dry up the sources 
of that very revenue, upon which its success entirely depends! 
Vain and delusive hope ! Not one negro slave will ever be 
Bent away from this country by federal funds — and heaven 
forbid that they should ; and yet we fear the longing, linger- 
ing hope, will corrupt the pure principles of many a deluded 
patriot. 

We have thus examined fully this scheme of emancipation 
and deportation, and trust we have satisfactorily shown, that 
the whole plan is utterly impracticable, requiring an expense 
and sacrifice of property far beyond the entire resources of the 
State and Federal Governments, We shall now proceed to 
inquire, whether we can emancipate our slaves with permis- 
sion that they remain among us. 

Emancipation without I Deportation. — We candidly confess, 
that we look upon this last mentioned scheme as much more 
practicable, and likely to be forced upon us, than the former. 
We consider it, at the same time, so fraught with danger and 
mischief both to the whites and blacks — so utterly subversive 
of the welfare of the slaveholding country, in both an economi- 
cal and moral point of view, that we cannot, upon any princi- 
ple of right or expediency, give it our sanction. Almost all 
the speakers in the Virginia Legislature seemed to think there 



PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 421 

ought to be no emancipation without deportation. Mr. Clay, 
;too, in his celebrated colonization speech of 1830, says, "if the 
jquestion were submitted whether there should be immediate 
ior gradual emancipation of all the slaves in the United States, 
without their removal or colonization, painful as it is to ex- 
jpress the opinion, I have no doubt that it would be unwise to 
'emancipate them. I believe that the aggregate of evils which 
would be engendered in society, upon the supposition of gene- 
ral emancipation, and of the liberated slaves remaining princi- 
pally among us, would be greater than all the evils of slave- 
ry, great as they unquestionably are." Even the northern 
philanthropists themselves admit, generally, that there should 
be no emancipation without removal. Perhaps, then, under 
these circumstances, we might have been justified in closing 
our review with a consideration of the colonization scheme ; 
but as we are anxious to survey this subject fully in all its 
aspects, and to demonstrate upon every ground the complete 
justification of the whole southern country in a further con- 
tinuance of that system of slavery which has been originated 
by no fault of theirs, and continued and increased contrary to 
their most earnest desires and petitions, we have determined 
briefly to examine this scheme likewise. As we believe the 
scheme of deportation utterly impracticable, we have come to 
the conclusion that in the present great question, the real and 
decisive line of conduct is either abolition without removal, or 
a steady perseverance in the system now established. " Pal- 
try and timid minds," says the present Lord Chancellor of 
England on this very subject, " shudder at the thought of 
mere activity, as cowardly troops tremble at the idea of calm- 
ly waiting for the enemy's approach. Both the one and the 
other hasten their fate by relentless and foolish movements." 

The ground upon which we shall rest our argument on this 
subject is, that the slaves, in both an economical and moral 
36 



422 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

point of view, are entirely unfit for a state of freedom among 
the whites ; and we shall produce such proofs and illustra- 
tions of our position, as seem to us perfectly conclusive. That 
condition of our species from which the most important con- 
sequences flow, says Mr. Mill, the Utilitarian, is the necessity 
of labor for the supply of the fund of our necessaries and con- 
veniences. It is this which influences, perhaps more than any 
other, even our moral and religious character, and determines 
more than everything else besides, the social and political 
state of man. It must enter into the calculations of not only 
the political economist, but even of the metaphysician, the 
moralist, the theologian, and politician. 

We shall, therefore, proceed at once to inquire what effect 
would be produced upon the slaves of the South in an eco- 
nomical point of view, by emancipation with permission to 
remain — whether the voluntary labor of the freed-man would 
be as great as the involuntary labor of the slave ? Fortunate- 
ly for us, this question has been so frequently and fairly sub- 
jected to the test of experience, that we are no longer left to 
vain and fruitless conjecture. Much was said in the Legisla- 
ture of Virginia about superiority of free labor over slave, and 
perhaps, under certain circumstances, this might be true ; hut, 
in the present instance, the question is between the relative 
amounts of labor which may be obtained from slaves before 
and after their emancipation. Let us, then, first commence 
with our country, where, it is well known to everybody, that 
slave labor is vastly more efficient and productive than the 
labor of free blacks. 

Taken as a whole class, the latter must be considered the 
most worthless and indolent of the citizens of the United 
States.' It is well known that throughout the whole extent 
of our Union, they are looked upon as the very drones and 
pests of society. Nor does this character arise from the disa- 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 



423 



bilities and disfranchisement by which the law attempts to 
guard against them. In the non-slaveholding States, where 
they have been more elevated by law, this kind of population 
is in a worse condition, and much more troublesome to socie- 
ty, than in the slaveholding, and especially in the planting 
States. Ohio, some years ago, formed a sort of land of pro- 
mise for this deluded class, to which many have repaired from 
the slaveholding States,— and what has been the consequence ? 
They have been most harshly expelled from that State, and 
forced to take refuge in a foreign land. Look through the 
Northern States, and mark the class upon whom the eye of 
the police is most steadily and constantly kept— see with what 
vigilance and care they are hunted down from place to place — 
and you cannot fail to see that idleness and improvidence are 
at the root of all their misfortunes. Not only does the expe- 
rience of our own country illustrate this great fact, but others 
furnish abundant testimony. 

rt The free negroes," says Brougham, " in the West Indies 
are, with a very few exceptions, chiefly in the Spanish and 
Portuguese settlements, equally averse to all sorts of labor 
which do not contribute to the supply of their immediate and 
most urgent wants. Improvident and careless of the future, 
they are not actuated by that principle which inclines more 
civilized men to equalize their exertions at all times, and to 
work after the necessaries of the day have been procured, in 
order to make up for the possible deficiencies of the morrow ; 
nor has their intercourse with the whites taught them to con- 
sider any gratification as worth obtaining, which cannot be 
produced by slight exertion of desultory and capricious in- 
dustry."* 

In the report of the Committee of the Privy Council in 
Great Britain, in 1 788, the most ample proof of this assertion 
* Brougham's Colonial Policy, Book IV., Sec. 1. 



424 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

is brought forward. In Jamaica and Barbadoes, it was stated, 
that free negroes were never known to work for hire, and they 
have all the vices of the slave. Mr. Braithwait, the agent for 
Barbadoes, affirmed, that if the slaves in that island were of- 
fered their freedom on condition of working for themselves, 
not one-tenth of them would accept it. In all the other colo- 
nies the statements agree most accurately with those collected 
by the Committee of the Privy Council. "M. Malouet, wUJ 
bore a special commission from the present government ij 
examine the character and habits of the Maroons in Dutch 
Guiana, and to determine whether or not they were adapted 
to become hired Laborers, informs as that they will only work 
one day in the week, which they find abundantly sufficient, in 
the fi itile soil and genial climate of the new world, to supply 
all the wants that they have yet learnt to feel. The rest of 
their time is spent in absolute indolence and sloth. ' Le 
reposj says he, % et Voisivete sont devenus dans Jeur ctat social 
leur a ni q uc passion T He gives the very Bame description of 
the free negroes in the French colonies, although many of 
them possessed lands and slaves. The spectacle, he tells us, 
was never yet exhibited of a free negro supporting his family 
by the culture of his little property. All other authors agree 
in giving the same description of free negroes in the British, 
French and Dutch colonies, by whatever denomination they 
may be distinguished, whether Maroons, Caraibes, free Macks, 
or fugitive slaves. The Abbe Raynald, with all his ridiculous 
fondness for savages, cannot, in the present instance, so far 
twist the facts according to his fancies and feelings, as to give 
a favorable portrait of this degraded race."* 

From these facts, it would require no great sagacity to come 
to the conclusion, that slave cannot be converted into free 
labor without imminent danger to the prosperity and wealth 
* Brougham's Colonial Policy. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 425 

of the country where the change takes place — and in this par- 
ticular it matters not what ma}' be the color of the slave. In 
i the commencement of the reign of Charles V., the representa- 
, tions of Las Casas determined Cardinal Ximenes, the prime 
minister of Charles, to make an experiment of the conversion 
, of slave labor into free, and for this purpose pious commis- 
i sioners were sent out, attended by Las Casas himself, for the 
purpose of liberating the Indian slaves in the new world. Now 
mark the result. These commissioners, chosen from the clois- 
ter, and big with real philanthropy, repaired to the Western 
world intent upon the great work of emancipation. " Their 
ears," says Robertson, " were open to information from every 
I quarter — they compared the different accounts which they re- 
ceived — and after a mature consideration of the whole, they 
were fully satisfied that the state of the colony rendered it im- 
possible to adopt the plan proposed by Las Casas, and recom- 
mended by the Cardinal. They plainly perceived that no al- 
lurement was so powerful as to surmount the natural aversion 
of the Indians to any laborious effort, and that nothing but 
the authority of a master could compel them to work ; and if 
they were not kept constantly under the eye and discipline 
of a superior, so great were their natural listlessness and in- 
difference, that they w T ould neither attend to religious instruc- 
tion, nor observe those rights of Christianity which they had 
been already taught. Upon all these accounts the superin- 
tendents found it necessary to tolerate repartimientos, and to 
suffer the Indians to remain under subjection to their Spanish 
masters."* In the latter part of his reign, Charles, with most 
imprudent and fatal decision, proclaimed the immediate and 
universal emancipation of all the Indians— and precisely what 
any man of reflection might have anticipated, resulted. Their 
industry and freedom were found entirely incompatible. The 
* Robertson's America, vol. 1, p. 123. 
36* 



420 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

alarm was instantaneously spread over the whole Spanish 
colonies. Peru, for a time lost to the monarchy, was only re- 
stored by the repeal of the obnoxious law ; and in New Spain, 
quiet was only preserved by a combination of the governor 
and subjects to suspend its execution. During the mad career 
of the French revolution, the slaves in the French colonies 
were, for a time, liberated ; and even in Cayenne, where the 
experiment succeeded best in consequence of the paucity of 
slaves, it completely demonstrated the superiority of slave 
over free black labor ; and generally the re-establishment a 
slavery was attended with the most happy consequences, anj 
even courted by the negroes themselves, who became heartily 
tired of their short-lived liberty. Of the great experiment 
which has been recently made in Colombia and Guatemala 
we shall presently speak. We believe it has completely 
proved the same well established fact — the great superiority 
of slave over free negro labor. 

Mr. ( Harkson, in his pamphlet on slavery, has alluded in 
terms of high commendation to an experiment made in Bar- 
badoes, on Mr. Steele's plantation, which, he contends, has 
proved the Bafety and facility of the transition from slave to 
free labor. It seems Mr. Steele parcelled out his land among 
his negroes, and paid them wages tor their labor. Now, we 
invite particularly the attention of our readers to the following 
extracts from the letter of Mr. Scaly, a neighbor of Mr. Steele, 
which will not only serve to establish our position, but afford 
an illustration of the melancholy fact, that the best of men 
cannot be relied on when under the influence of prejudice and 
passion. "It so happened," says Mr. Scaly, "that I resided 
on the nearest adjoining estate to Mr. Steele, and superintend- 
ed the management of it myself for many years; I had, there- 
fore, a better opportunity of forming an opinion than Mr. 
Clarkson can have — he has read Mr. Steele's account — / wit- 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 427 

nessed the operations and effects of his plans. He possesses 
one of the largest and most seasonable plantations, in a de- 
lightful part of the island ; with all these advantages, his estate 
was never in as good order as those in the same neighbor- 
hood, and the crops were neither adequate to the size and 
resources of the estate, nor in proportion to those of other es- 
tates in the same part of the island. Finally, after an experi- 
ment of thirty years under Mr. Steele, and his executor, Mr. 
T. Bell, Mr. Steele's debts remained unpaid, and the planta- 
tion was sold by a decree of the Court of Chancery. After 
the debts and costs of suit were paid, very little remained out 
of 45,000Z. to go to the residuary legatees. 

" It was very well known that the negroes rejoiced when 
the change took place, and thanked their God that they were 
relieved from the copyhold system. Such was the final result 
and success that attended this system, which has been so 
much eulogized by Mr. Clarkson. After the estate was sold 
and the system changed, I had equally an opportunity of ob- 
serving the management, and certainly the manifest improve- 
ment was strong evidence in favor of the change. Fields, 
which had been covered with bushes for a series of years, 
were brought into cultivation, and the number of pounds of 
sugar was in some years more than doubled under the new 
management : the provision crops also were abundant ; con- 
sequently, the negroes and stock were amply provided for." 
Again : the Attorney-General of Barbadoes corroborates the 
statements of Mr. Sealy in the most positive terms. He says, 
" I was surprised to see it asserted lately in print, that his, — 
Steele's plantation, — succeeded well under the management. 
I know it to be false. It failed considerably ; and had he 
lived a few years longer, he would have died not worth a 
farthing. Upon his death, they reverted to the old system, to 
which the slaves readily and willingly returned ; the planta- 



428 PROFESSOR DEW ON' SLAVERY. 

tion now succeeds, and the slaves are contented and happy, 
and think themselves much better off than under the copy- 
hold system, for their wages would not afford them many 
comforts which they have now."* (Upon this subject see No. 
LX. London Quarterly. Art — West India Colonies.) But 
a short time since, a highly respectable, and one of the most 
intelligent farmers of Virginia, informed us that he had actu- 
ally tried, upon a much smaller scale, a similar experiment, 
and that it entirely failed ; the negroes, devoid of judgment 
and good management, became lazy and improvident, and 
every time one was so unfortunate as to fall sick, it immedi- 
ately became necessary to support him. The whole plan soon 
disgusted the master, and proved that the free labor system 
would not answer for the best of our negroes ; for those he tried 
wore his best. Now these experiments were the more con- 
clusive, because the master reserved the right of re-imposing 
slavery upon them in case the experiment should not meet 
his approbation : every stimulus was thus offered, in case their 
f reedom was really desirable, to work hard, but their natural 

* If it were not that the experiment would be too danserous and 
costly, we would have no objection to see our slaves gratified with the 
enjoyment of freedom for a short time. There is no doubt but that 
they, like the Poles, Livonians, &c, and the negroes of Mr. Steele, 
would soon sigh again for a master's control, and a master's support 
and protection. It is a well known fact that upon the borders of the 
free States, our slaves are not so much disposed to elope, as those who 
are situated further off; and the reason is, they are near enough to wit- 
ness the condition of the free black laborer, and they know it is far more 
wretched than their own. A citizen of the West, who is as well acquaint- 
ed with this whole subject as any other in the State or in the United 
States, informed us, a short time since, that the slaves of Botetourt and 
Montgomery were much more disposed to elope and settle in Ohio, than 
those of Cabel and Mason, situated on the borders — because the former 
are not so well acquainted with the real condition of the free blacks as 
the latter. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 429 

indolence and carelessness triumphed over love of liberty, and 
demonstrated the fact, that free labor, made out of slaves, is 
■ the worst in the world. 

So far we have adduced instances from among mixed pop 
i ulations alone. Some have imagined that the indolence of 
• liberated blacks in these cases, has arisen entirely from the 
j presence of the whites, acknowledged to be the superior race 
I both by law and custom ; that, consequently, if the blacks 
could be freed from the degrading influence exerted by the 
mere pressure of the whites, they would quickly manifest 
more desire to accumulate and acquire all the industrious 
habits of the English operative or New England laborer, Al- 
though this is foreign to our immediate object, which is to 
prove the inefricacy of free black labor in our country, where, 
of course, whites must always be present, we will, nevertheless, 
examine this opinion, because it has been urged in favor of 
that grand scheme of colonization recommended by some of 
the orators in the Virginia Legislature. Our own opinion 
is, that the presence of the whites ought rather to be an in- 
centive and encouragement to labor. Habits of industry are 
more easily acquired when all are busy and active around us. 
A man feels a spirit of industry and activity stir within him, 
from moving amongst such societies as those of Marseilles, 
Liverpool, and New York, where the din of business and bus- 
tle assails his ears at every turn, whereas, he soon becomes 
indolent and listless at Bath or Saratoga. Why, then, are our 
colored free men so generally indolent and worthless among 
the industrious and enterprising citizens of even our Northern 
and New England States ? It is because there is an inherent 
and intrinsic cause at work, which will produce its effect un- 
der all circumstances. In the free black, the principle of idle- 
ness and dissipation triumphs over that of accumulation and 
the desire to better our condition ; the animal part of the 



430 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

man gains the victory over the moral, and he, consequently, 
prefers sinking down into the listless, inglorious repose of the 
brute creation, to rising to that energetic activity which can 
only be generated amid the multiplied, refined, and artificial 
wants of civilized society. The very conception which nine 
slaves in ten have of liberty, is that of idleness and sloth with 
the enjoyment of plenty ; and we are not to wonder that 
they should hasten to practice upon their theory so soon as 
liberated. But the experiment has been sufficiently tried to 
prove most conclusively that the free black will work nowhere 
except by compulsion. 

St. Domingo is often spoken of by philanthropists and 
schemers ; the trial has there been made upon a scale suffi- 
ciently grand to test our opinions, and we are perfectly will- 
ing to abide the result of the experiment. 

The main purpose of the mission of Consul-General Mc- 
Kenzie, to Ilayti, by the British Government, was to clear up 
this very question. We have made every exertion to pro" 
cure the very valuable notes of that gentleman, on Ilayti, 
but have failed ; we are, therefore, obliged to rely upon the 
eighty-ninth numbers of the London Quarterly, in one article 
of which mention is made of the result of M'Kenzie's obser- 
vations. " By all candid persons," says the Review, " the 
deliberate opinion which that able man has formed from care- 
ful observation, and the whole tenor of the evidence he has 
furnished, will be thought conclusive. Such invincible repug- 
nance do the free negroes of that Island feel to labor, that 
the system of the code rural of 1826, about the genuineness 
of which so much doubt was entertained a few years ago, is 
described as falling little short of the compulsion to which the 
slaves had been subjected previous to their emancipation. 
' The consequences of delinquincy,' he says, ' are heavy fine 
and imprisonment, and the provisions o' the law are as despotic 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 



431 



as can well be conceived.' He afterwards subjoins : — Such 
have been the various modes for inducing or compelling labor 
i for nearly forty years. It is next necessary to ascertain, as 
i far as it is practicable, the degree of success which has attend- 
ed each ; and the only mode with which I am acquainted, is 
to give the returns of the exported agricultural produce dur- 
i ing the same period, marking, where it can be done, any ac- 
; cidental circumstance that may have had an influence.' He 
then quotes the returns at length, and observes — ' There is 
one decided inference from the whole of these six returns, viz : 
the positive decrease of cane cultivation, in all its branches — 
the diminution of other branches of industry, though not 
I equally well marked, is no less certain, than the articles of 
1 spontaneous growth maintain, if not exceed, their former 
amount.' "We may further add, that even the light labor re- 
quired for trimming the planting coffee trees, has been so 
much neglected, that the export of coffee in 1830, falls short 
of that of 1829, by no less than 10,000,000 lbs." (See Lon- 
don Quarterly Review, No. 89, Art. West India Question.) 
We subjoin here, to exhibit the facts asserted by Mr. 
M'Kenzie in a more striking manner, a tabular view of some 
of the principle exports from St. Domingo, during her subjec- 
tion to France, and during the best years of the reigns of 
Toussaint, Dessalines, and Boyer,* upon the authority of 
James Franklin, on the present state of Hayti. 



Produce. 


French. 


Toussaint. 


Dessalines. 


Boyer. 




1791. 


1802. 


1804. 


1822. f 




lbs. 


lbs. 


lbs. 


lbs, 


Sugar, 


163,405,220 


53,400,000 


41,600,000 


652,541 


Coffee, 


68,151,180 


34,370,000 


31.000,000 


35,117,834 


Cotton, 


6,286,126 


4,050,000 


3,000,000 | 


891,950 



* It is known that under Boyer there was a union of the Island un- 
der one government. 
f The other years give the returns of the French part of the Island; 



4-02 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

There has been a gradual diminution of the amount of the 
products of Hayti, since 1822. In 1825, the whole value of 
exerts was about £8,000,000, more than *1, 000,000 less 
than in 1822, and the revenue of the Island was not equal to 
the public expenditure. Is not this fair exp< riment for forty 
years, under more favorable circumstances than any reasonable 
man had a right to anticipate, sufficient to convince and over- 
whelm the meet sceptical as to the unproductiveness of slave 
labor convert d into free labor I 

But the British colony at Sierra Leone is another case in 
point, to establish the Bame position. Evidence was taken in 
1830, before a committee ofthe Bouse of Commons. Capt. 
Bnllen, R. \., Btated that at Sierra Leone, they gave the 
blacks a portion of land to cultivate, and they cultivate just 
as much as will keep them, and not an inch more. Mr. -lack- 
son, one ofthe Judges of the mixed Commission Court, being 
asked — "Taking into consideration the situation of Sierra 
Leone, and the attention paid by government to promote 
their comfort, what progress have they made towards civiliza- 
tion or the comforts of civilized life?" makes this answer — "I 
should say very inadequate to the efforts which have been 
made to promote their comfort and civilization." Capt. 
Spenoe, being asked a similar question, replies — "I have 
formed a very different opinion as to their progress of indus- 
try. I have not been able to observe that they seem inclined 
to cultivate the country farther than vegetables and things of 
that kind. They do not seem inclined to cultivate for expor- 
tation. Their wants are very few, and they are very wild ; 
and their wants are supplied by the little exertion they make. 
They have sufficient to maintain them in clothing and food, 
and these are all their wants." 

this for the Spanish and Ficnch, ought therefore, to be proportionably 
greater. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 433 

Our own colony, upon the coast of Africa proves, too, the 
same fact. It has been fed slowly and cautiously, with emi- 
grants, and yet Mr. Ashmun's entreaties to colonization 
friends in the United States, to recollect that rice did not grow 
spontaneously in Africa, to send out laboring men, of good 
i character, <fcc, but too conclusively show, in spite of the col- 
I ored and exaggerated statements of prejudiced friends, the 
! great difficulty of making the negroes work even in Liberia ;* 
and we have no doubt, that if 6,000 or 60,000 could be col- 
onized annually in Africa, there would not be a more worth- 
less and indolent race of people upon the face of the globe, 
than our African colonies would exhibit. 

We have now, we think, proved our position, that slave la- 
bor, in an economical point of view, is far superior to free 
negro labor ; and have no doubt that if an immediate eman- 
cipation of negroes were to take place, the whole southern 
country would be visited with an immediate general famine, 
from which the productive resources of ali the other States of 
the Union could not deliver them. 

It .is now easy for us to demonstrate the second point in our 
argument — that the slave is not only economically but moral- 
ly unfit for freedom. And first, idleness and consequent want 
are, of themselves, sufficient to generate a catalogue of vices 
of the most mischievous and destructive character. Look to 
the penal prosecution of every country, and mark the situation 

* We understand, from most undoubted authority, that Mr. Bar- 
bour, a negro gentleman from Liberia, who lately visited the Virginia 
Springs, for the purpose of re- establishing his health, which had given 
way under the deleterious influence of an African climate, bears most 
unequivocal testimony to the idleness of the blacks in Liberia — thinks 
that the statement whi^h has been generally given of the colony great- 
ly exaggerated — considers it a partial failure at least ; and laughs at 
the idea of its being made a recipient for the immense and rapidly 
increasing mass of our whole black population. 
37 



434 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

of those who fall victims to the laws. And what a frightful 
proportion do we find among the indigent and idle classes of 
society ! Idleness generates want, want gives rise to tempta- 
tion, and strong temptation makes the villain. The mo>l ap- 
propriate prayer for frail, imperfect man, is " lead us not into 
temptation." Mr. Archer, of Virginia, well observed in his 
speech, before the Colonization Society, that " the free blaeks 
were destined by an insurmountable barrier — to the want of 
occupation — thence to the want of food — thence to the dis- 
tresses which ensue from that want — thence to the settled 
deprivation which grows out of those distresses, and is nursed 
at their bosoms ; and this condition was not casualty, bat fate. 
The evidence was not speculation in political economy — it was 
geometrical demonstration." 

We are not to wonder that this class of citizens should be 
bo depraved and immoral. An idle population will always be 
worthless ; and it is a mistake to think that they are only 
worthless in the Southern States, where it is erroneously sup- 
posed the slavery of a portion of their race depress them below 
their condition in the free States ; on the contrary, we are 
disposed rather to think their condition better in the slave 
than the free States. Mr. Everett, in a speech before the 
Colonization Society, during the present year, says: "they 
(the free blacks) form, in Massachusetts, about one seventy-fifth 
part of the population ; one-sixth of the convicts in our prisons 
are of this class." The average number of annual convictions 
in the State of Virginia, estimated by the late Governor Giles, 
from the penitentiary reports, up to 1829, is seventy-one for 
the whole population — making one in every sixteen-thoiisand 
of the white population, one in every twenty-two thousand of 
the slaves, and one for every five thousand of the free colored 
people. Thus, it will be seen, that crimes among the five 
blacks are more than three times as numerous as among the 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 



435 



whites, and four and a half times more numerous than among 
the slaves. But, although the free blacks have thus much 
the largest proportion of crime to answer for, yet the propor- 
tion is not so great in Virginia as in Massachusetts. Although 
they are relatively to the other classes more numerous, mak- 
ing the one-thirtieth of the population of the State, not one- 
eighth of the whole number of convicts are from among them 
in Virginia, while in Massachusetts there is one-sixth. We 
may infer, then, they are not so degraded and vicious in Vir- 
ginia, a slaveholding State, as in Massachusetts, a non slave- 
holding State. But there is one fact to which we invite 
particularly the attention of those philanthropists who have the 
elevation of Southern slaves so much at heart— that the slaves 
in Virginia furnish a much smaller annual proportion of 
convicts than the whites, and among the latter a very large 
proportion of convicts consist of foreigners or citizens of other 

States. 

There is one disadvantage attendant upon free blacks, in 
the slaveholding States, which is not felt in the non-slave- 
holding. In the former, they corrupt the slaves, encourage 
them to steal from their masters by purchasing from them, 
and they are, too, a sort of moral conductor by which the 
slaves can better organize and concert plans of mischief among 
themselves. 

So far we have been speaking of the evils resulting from 
mere idleness ; but there are other circumstances which must 
not be omitted in an enumeration of the obstacles to emanci- 
pation. The blacks have now all the habits and feelings of 
slaves, the whites have those of masters ; the prejudices are 
formed, and mere legislation cannot improve them. "Give 
me," said a wise man, "the formation of the habits and man- 
ners of a people, and I care not who makes the laws." Declare 
the negroes of the South free to-morrow, and vain will be your 



436 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

decree, until you have prepared them for it ; you depress, 
instead of elevating. The law would, in every point of vies 
be one of the most cruel and inhuman which could p 
be passed. The law would make them freemen, and custoa 
or prejudice, we care not which you call it, would degrafl 
them to the condition of slaves; and soon should we see, that 
"it is happened unto them, according to the true proverb, the 
dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the bow that has 
been washed, to her wallowing in the mire." " JVe quid ni- 
mitt n should be our maxim ; and we must never endeavor to 
elevate beyond what circumstances will allow. It is better 
that each one should remain in society in the condition in 
which he has been born and trained, and not to mount too 
fast without preparation. If a Virginia or South-Carolina 
former wished to make his overseer perfectly miserable, he 
could not better do it, than by persuading him that he was 
not only a freeman, but a polished gentleman likewise, and 
consequently, induce him to enter his drawing room. lie 
would soon sigh for the fields, and less polished but more suit- 
able companions. Bence, in the Southern States, the condi- 
tion of the free black- is bett< r than in the Northern ; in the 
latter, he is told, that he is a freeman and entirely equal to 
the white, and prejudice assigns to him a degraded station — 
light is furnished him by which to view the interior of the 
fairy palace which is fitted up for him, and custom expels him 
from it, after the law has told him it was his. He, conse- 
quently, leads a life of endless mortification and disappoint 
ment. Tantalus like, he has frequently the cup to his lips, 
and imperious custom dashes it untasted from him. In the 
Southern States, law and custom more generally coincide : the 
former makes no profession which the latter does not sanction, 
and consequently, the free black has nothing to grieve and 
disappoint him. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 437 

"We have already said, in the course of this review, that if 
we were to liberate the slaves, we could not, in fact, alter their 
condition — they would still be virtually slaves ; talent, habit, 
and wealth, would make the white the master still, and the 
emancipation would only have the tendency to deprive him 
of those sympathies and kind feelings for the black which now 
characterize him. Liberty has been the heaviest curse to the 
slave, when given too soon ; we have already spoken of the 
eagerness and joy with which the negroes of Mr. Steele, in 
Barbadoes, returned to a state of slavery. The east of Europe 
affords hundreds of similar instances. 1791, Stanislaus Au- 
gustus, preparing a hopeless resistance to the threatened 
attack of Russia, in concert with the states, gave to Poland a 
constitution which established the complete personal freedom 
of the peasantry. The boon has never been recalled, and 
what was the consequence ? " Finding (says Jones, in his 
volume on Rents) their dependence on their proprietors for 
subsistence remained undiminished, the peasants showed no 
very grateful sense of the boon bestowed upon them ; they 
feared they should now be deprived of all claim upon the 
proprietors for assistance, when calamity or infirmity over- 
took them. It is only since they have discovered that the 
connection between them and the owners of the estates on 
which they reside is little altered in practice, and that their 
old masters very generally continue, from expediency or hu- 
manity, the occasional aid they formerly lent them, that they 
have become reconciled to their new character of freemen." 
" The Polish boors are, therefore, in fact still slaves" says 
Burnett, in his ' View of the present state of Poland' " and 
relatively to their political existence, absolutely subject to the 
will of their lord as in all the barbarism of the feudal times.'' 
" I was once on a short journey with a nobleman, when we 
stopped to bait at a farm-house of a village. The peasants 
37* 



438 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERT. 



got intelligence of the presence of their lord, and assembled 

in a body of twenty or thirty, to prefer a petition to him. I 
was never more struck with the appearance of these poor 
wretches, and the contrast of their condition with that of their 
master: I stood at a distance, and perceived that he did not 
yield to their supplication. When he dismissed them, I had 
the curiosity to inquire the object of their petition, and he 
replied, that they had begged for an increased allowance of 
land, on the plea that what they had was insufficient for their 
support. lie added, 'I did not grant it them because their 
present allotments is the usual quantity, and as it has sufficed 
hitherto, so I know it will in time to come. < Besides, 1 said 
he, 'if I give them more, I well know that it will not in real- 
ity better their circumstances.' Poland does not furnish a 
man of more humanity than the one who rejected this appar- 
ently reasonable petition ; but it must be allowed that he had 
reasons for what he did. Those degraded and wretched be- 
ings, instead of hoarding the small surplus of their absolute 
necessaries, are almost universally accustomed to expend it in 
that abominable spirit, which they call schnaps. It is incred- 
ible what quantities of this pernicious liquor are drunk by the 
peasant men and women. The first time I saw any of these 
withered creatures was at Dantzic. I was prepared by print- 
ed accounts, to expect a sight of singular wretchedness ; but 
I shrunk involuntarily from the sight of the reality. Some 
involuntary exclamation of surprise, mixed with compassion 
escaped me ; a thoughtless and a feelingless person (which 
are about the same thing) was standing by— 'Oh, sir,' says 
he, 'you will find plenty of such people as these in Poland- 
and you may strike them, and kick them, or do what you' 
please with them, and they will never resist you : they dare 
not.' Far be it from me to ascribe the feelings of this man to 
the more cultivated and humanized Poles ; but each such in- 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 439 

cidental and thoughtless expressions betray too sensibly the gen- 
eral state of the feeling which exists in regard to these oppres- 
sed men." The traveller will now look in vain, throughout 
our slaveholding country, for such misery as is here depicted ; 
and in spite of all the tales told by gossipping travellers, he 
will find no master so relentless as the Polish proprietor, and 
no young man so "thoughtless" and " feelingless" as the 
young Pole above mentioned. But liberate our slaves, and in 
a very few years we shall have all these horrors and reproach- 
es added unto us. 

In Livonia, likewise, the serfs were permaturely liberated ; 
and mark the consequences. Von Helen, who travelled through 
Livonia in 181 9, observes : " Along the high road through Li- 
vonia are found, at short distances, filthy public houses, called 
in the country Rhatcharuas, before the doors of which are 
usually seen a multitude of wretched carts and sledges belong- 
ing to the peasants, who are so addicted to brandy and 
strong liquors,* that they spend whole hours in those places. 
Nothing proves so much the state of barbarism in which those 
men are sunk, as the manner in which they received the de- 
cree issued about this time. These savages, unwilling to de- 
pend upon their own exertions for support, made all the resis- 
tance in their power to that decree, the execution of which 
was at length entrusted to an armed force." The Livonian 
peasants, therefore, received their new privileges yet more 
ungraciously than the Poles, though accompanied with the 
gift of property and secure means of subsistence, if they chose 
to exert themselses. By an edict of Maria Theresa, called by 
the Hungarians the ubarium, personal slavery and attachment 
to the soil were abolished, and the peasants declared to be 
" hominus libera? transmigrationis ;" and yet, says Jones, " the 

* We believe, in case of an emancipation of our blacks, that drunk- 
enness would be among them like the destroying angel. 



440 TROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

authority of the owners of the soil over the persons and pro- 
perty of their tenantry lias been very imperfectly abrogated ; 
the necessities of the peasants oblige them frequently to resort 
to their landlords for loans of food ; they become laden with 
heavy debts, to be discharged by labor.* The proprietors 
retain the right of employing them at pleasure, paying them, 
in lieu of subsistence, about one-third of the actual value of 
their labor ; and lastly, the administration of justice is still in 
the hands of the nobles ; and one of the first sights which 
strikes a foreigner, on approaching their mansions, is a sort of 
low-frame work of posts, to which a serf is tied when it is 
thought proper to administer the discipline of the whip, for 
offences which do not seem grave enough to demand a formal 
trial." 

Let us for a moment revert to the black republic of Ilavti, 
and we shall see that the negroes have gained nothing by 
their bloody revolution. Mr. Franklin, who derives his in- 
formation from personal inspection, gives the following account 
of the present state of the island : "Oppressed with the weight 
of an overwhelming debt, contracted without an equivalent, 
with an empty treasury, and destitute of the ways and means 
for supplying it; the soil almost neglected, or at least very 
partially tilled ; without commerce or credit. Such is the 
present state of the republic ; and it seems almost impossible 
that, under the system which is now pursued, there should 
be any amelioration of its condition, or that it can arrive at 

* Almost all our free negroes -will run in debt to the full amount of 
their credit. "I never knew a free negro (says an intelligent corres- 
pondent in a late letter) who would not contract debts, if allowed, to a 
greater amount than he could pay ; and those whom I have suffered 
to reside on my land, although good mechanics, have been generally 
so indolent and impoverished as to be in my debt at the end of the 
year, for provisions, brandy, &c, when I would allow it." 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 441 

any very high state of improvement. Hence, there appears 
every reason to apprehend that it will recede into irrecovera- 
ble insignificance, poverty, and disorder .' ' (p. 265.) And 
the great mass of the Haytiens are virtually in a state of as 
abject slavery as when the island was under the French do- 
minion. The government soon found it absolutely necessary 
to establish a system of compulsion in all respects as bad, and 
more intolerable than, when slavery existed. The ^ode Henri 
prescribed the most mortifying regulations, to be obeyed by 
the laborers of the island ; work ivas to commence at day-liyht 
and continue uninterruptedly till eight o'clock ; one hour was 
then allowed to the laborer to breakfast on the spot; at nine, 
work commenced again, and continued until twelve, when two 
hours repose was given to the laborer ; at two, he commenced 
again and worked uniil night. All these regulations were 
enforced by severe penal enactments. Even Toussaint POu- 
verture, who is supposed to have had the welfare of the 
negroes as much at heart as any other ruler in St. Domingo, 
in one of his proclamations in the ninth year of the French 
Republic, peremptorily directs — a &\\free laborers, men and 
women, now in a state of idleness, and living in towns, vil- 
lages, and on other plantations than those to which they belong, 
with the intention to evade work, even those of both sexes 
who had not been employed in field labor since the revolu- 
tion, are required to return immediately to their respective 
plantations." And in article seven, he directs, that the " over- 
seers and drivers of every plantation shall make it their busi- 
ness to inform the commanding officer of the district in regard 
to the conduct of the laborers under their management, as 
well as those who shall absent themselves from their planta- 
tions without a pass, and of those who, residing on the plan- 
tations, shall refuse to work ; they shall be forced to go to 
labor in the field, and if they prove obstinate, they shall be 



442 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

arrested and carried before the military commandant, in order 
to suffer the punishment above prescribed, according to the 
exigence of the case, the punishment being fine and imprison- 
ment." And here is the boasted freedom of the negroes of 
St. Domingo : the appalling vocabulary of " overseer," " dri- 
ver," " pass," d'c, is not even abolished. Slavery to the gov- 
ernment and its military officers is substituted for private sla- 
very ; the black master ha- stepped into the shoes of the 
white ; and we all know that he is the most cruel of masters, 
and more dreaded by the negro than any of the ten plagues 
of Egypt. We are well convinced that there is not a single 
negro in the commonwealth of Virginia, who would accept 
such freedom ; and yet the happiest of the human race are 
constantly invited to sigh for such freedom, and to sacrifice 
all their happiness in the vain wish. But, it is not necessary 
further to multiply examples ; enough has already been said, 
we hope, to convince the most sceptical of the gnat disadvan- 
tage to the slave himself, of freedom, when he is not prepared 
for it. It is unfortunate, indeed, that prejudiced and misguid- 
ed philanthropists so often assert as facts, what, on investiga- 
tion, turns out not only false, but even hostile to the very 
theories which they are attempting to support by them. We 
have already given one example of this kind of deception, in 
relation to Mr. Steele. We will now give another. 

"In the year 1760, the Chancellor Zamoyski," says Bur- 
nett, "enfranchised six villages in the Palatinate of Masovia. 
This experiment has been much vaunted by Mr. Coxe, as 
having been attended with all the good effects desired ; and 
he asserts that the Chancellor had, in consequence, enfran- 
chised the peasants on all his estates. Both of these assertions 
are false. I inquired particularly of the son of the present 
Count Zamoyski, respecting these six villages, and w T as grieved 
to learn, that the experiment had completely failed. The 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 443 

Count said, that within a few years, he had sold the estate ; 
and added, I was glad to get rid of it, from the trouble the 
peasants gave me. These degraded beings, on receiving then- 
freedom, were overjoyed at they knew not what, having no 
distinct comprehension of what freedom meant ; but merely 
a rude notion that they may now do what they like * They 
ran into every species of excess and extravagance which then- 
circumstances admitted. Drunkenness, instead of being occa- 
sional, became almost perpetual ; riot and disorder usurped 
the place of quietness and industry ; the necessary labor sus- 
pended, the lands were worse cultivated than before ; the small 
rents required of them they were often unable to pay." (Bur- 
netts View of Poland, p. 105.) Indeed, it is a calamity to 
mankind, that zealous and overheated philanthropists will not 
suffer the truth to circulate, when believed hostile to their 
visionary schemes. Such examples as the foregoing ought to 
be known and attended to. They would prevent a great deal 
of that impatient silly action which has drawn down such 
incalculable misery, so frequently, upon the human family 
-There is a time for all things," and nothing in this world 
should be done before its time. An emancipation of our V 
slaves would check at once that progress of improvement 
which is now so manifest among them. The whites would 
either gradually withdraw, and leave whole districts or settle- 
ments tn their possession, in which case they would sink rap- 
idly in the scale of civilization ; or, the blacks, by closer inter- 
course, would bring the whites down to their level. In the 
contact between the civilized and uncivilized man, all history 
and experience show, that the former will be sure to sink 
to the level of the latter. In these cases, it is always easier to 

* Precisely such a notion as that entertained by the slave* of this 
country and the West Indies. 



444 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

descend than ascend, and nothing will prevent the facilis dcs* 
census but slavery. 

The great evil, however, of these schemes of emancipation, 
remains yet to be told. They are admirably calculated to 
excite plots, murders and insurrections ; whether gradual or 
rapid in their operation, this is the inevitable tendency. In 
the former case, you disturb the quiet and contentment of the 
slave who is left unemancipated ; and he becomes the mid- 
night murderer to gain that fatal freedom whose blessings he 
does not comprehend. In the latter case, want and invidious 
distinction will prompt to revenge. Two totally different! 
races, as we have before seen, cannot easily harmonize together, 
and although we have no idea that any organized plan of in- 
surrection or rebellion can ever secure for the black the supe- 
riority, even when free,* yet his idleness will produce want 
and worthlessness, and his very worthlessness and degradation 
will stimulate him to deeds of rapine and vengeanee; he will 
oftener engage in plots and massacres, and thereby draw down 
on his devoted head, the vengeance of the provoked whites. 
But one limited massacre is recorded in Virginia history; let 
her liberate her slaves, and every year you would hear of in- 
surrections and plots, and every day would perhaps record a 
minder ; the melancholy talc of Southampton would not alone 
blacken the page of our history, and make the tender mother 
shed the tear of horror over 1km- babe as Bhe clasped it to her 
bosom ; others of a deeper dye would thicken upon us; those 
regions where the brightness of polished life has dawned and 
brightened into full day, would relapse into darkness, thick 
and full of horrors, and in those dark and dismal hours, we 
might well exclaim, in the shuddering language of the poet: 

* Power can never be dislodged from the hands of the intelligent, 
the wealthy, and the courageous, by any plans that can be formed by 
the poor, the ignorant, and the habitually subservient ; history scarce 
furnishes such an example. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVtiix. «~ 

u "Sax. atra cava eircumvolat umbra 
Quis cladem illius noctis, quis fuiiera fando 
Explicit? * * * 

Urbs antiqua ruit, multos dominata per annos 
Plurima perque vias sternunter inertia passim 
Corpora per que domos, et religiosa deorum 
Limina. * * Orudelis ubique 
Luctus ubique pavor, et plurima luortis imago. " 
Colombia and Guatemala have tried the dangerous experi- 
ment of emancipation, and we invite the attention of the 
reader to the following dismal picture of the city of Guatemala, 
drawn by the graphic pencil of Mr. Dunn : " With lazaroni 
in rags and filth, a colored population drunken and revengeful, 
her females licentious, and her males shameless, she ranks as 
a true child of that accursed city, which still remains as a living 
monument of the fulfilment of prophecy, and the forbearance 
of God, the hole of every foul spirit, the ca^e of every unclean 
and hateful bird. The pure and simple sweets of domestic 
life, with its thousand tendernesses and its gentle affections 
are here exchanged for the feverish joys of a dissipated hour ; 
and the peaceful home of love is converted into a theatre of 
mutual accusations and recriminations. This leads to violent 
excesses ; men carry a large knife in a belt, women one fast- 
ened in the garter. Not a day passes ivithout murder ; on 
fast days and on Sundays, the average number killed is from 
four to five. From the number admitted into the hospital of 
St. Juan de Dios, it appears that in the year 1827, near fifteen 
hundred were stabbed, of whom from three to four hundred 
died." * Thank Heaven, no such scenes as these have yet 
been witnessed in our country. From the day of the arrival 
of the negro slaves upon our coast in the Dutch vessel, up to 
the present hour, a period of more than two hundred years, 
* See Dunn's Sketches of Guatemala, iu 1S2Y and 1S28, pp. 95, 

96, aud 97. 
38 



440 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

there Lave not perished in the whole southern country, by the 
hands of slaves, a number of whites equal to the average an- 
nual stabbings in the city of Guatemala, containing a popula- 
tion of 30,000 souls ! " Nor is the freed African," says 
Dunn, " one degree raised in the scale — under fewer restraints, 
his vices display themselves more disgustingly ; insolent and 
proud, indolent and a liar, he imitates only the vices of his 
superiors, and to the catalogue of his former crimes adds 
drunkenness and theft." Do not all these appalling examples 
but too eloquently tell the consequences of emancipation, and 
bid us well beware how we enter on any system which will be 
almost certain to bring down ruin and degradation both on 
the whites and the blacks. 

But in despite of all the reasoning and illustrations which 
can be urged, the example of the northern States of our con- 
federacy and the west of Europe afford, it is thought by some, 
conclusive evidence of the facility of changing the slave into 
the freeman. As to the former, it is enough to say that 
paucity of numbers,* uncongenial climate, and the state of 
agriculture to the North, together with the great demand of 
slaves to the South, alone accomplished the business. In 
reference to the west of Europe, it was the rise of the towns, 
the springing up of a middle class, and a change of agriculture, 
which gradually and silently effected the emancipation of the 
slaves, in a great measure through the operation of the selfish 
principle itself Commerce and manufactures arose in the 
western countries, and with them sprang up a middle class of 
freemen, in the cities and the country too, which gradually 
and imperceptibly absorbed into its body all the slaves. But 
fur this middle class, which acted as the absorbent, the slaves 

* " There are more free negroes and mulattoes (said Judge Tucker 
in 1803) in Virginia alone, than are to be found in the four New 
Kngland States, and Vermont in addition to them." — (Tucker's Black 
stone, vol. 1, part 2d, p. 60, foot note.) 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 447 

could not have been liberated with safety or advantage to 
either party. Now, in our southern country, there is no body 
of this kind to become the absorbent, nor are we likely to have 
such a body, unless we look into the vista of the future, and 
imagine a time when the south shall be to the north, what 
England now is to Ireland, and will consequently be overrun 
with northern laborers, underbidding the means of subsistence 
which will be furnished to the negro : then, perhaps, such a 
laboring class, devoid of all pride and habits of lofty bearing, 
may become a proper recipient or absorbent for emancipated 
slaves. But even then, we fear the effects of difference of color. 
The slave of Italy or France could be emancipated or escape 
to the city, and soon all records of his former state would 
perish, and he would gradually sink into the mass of freemen 
around him. But, unfortunately, the emancipated black carries 
a mark which no time can erase; he forever wears the in- 
delible symbol of his inferior condition ; the Ethiopian cannot 
change his skin, nor the leopard his spots. 

In Greece and Rome — and we imagine it was so during 
the feudal ages — the domestic slaves were frequently among 
the most learned, virtuous, and intelligent members of society. 
Terrence, Phaedrus, iEsop, and Epicetus, were all slaves. 
They were frequently taught all the arts and sciences, in order 
that they might be more valuable to their masters. " Seneca 
relates," says Wallace, in his Numbers of Mankind, " that 
Calvisius Labinus had many Anagnosaa slaves, or such as 
were learned and could read to their masters, and that none 
of them were purchased under 807/. 5s. lOd. According to 
Pliny, Daphnis, the grammarian, cost 565 11. 10s. 10d, 
Roscius, the actor, would gain yearly 4036/. 9s. 2d. A morio, 
or fool, was sold for 161/. 9s. 2d." {Wallace, on the Num- 
bers of Mankind, page 142.) There was no obstacle, there- 
fore, to the emancipation of such men as these, (except as to 



448 PROFESSOR DEW OST SLAVERY. 

the fool,) either on the score of color, intelligence, habits, or 
anything else — the body of freemen could readily and without 
difficulty or danger absorb them. Not so now — nor will it be 
in all time to come, with our blacks. With these remarks, 
we shall close our examination of the plans by which it has 
been or may be proposed to get rid of slavery. If our argu- 
ments are sound, and reasonings conclusive, we have shown 
they are all wild and visionary, calculated to involve the south 
in ruin and degradation ; and we now most solemnly call 
upon the statesman and the patriot,, the editor and the phi- 
lanthropist, to pause, and consider well, before they move in 
this dangerous and delicate business. But a few hasty and 
fatal steps in advance, and the work may be irretrievable. 
For Heaven's sake, then, let us pause, and recollect, that on 
this subject, so pregnant with the safety, happiness, and pros- 
perity of millions, we shall be doomed to realize the fearful 
motto, " nulla vestigia retrorsum." 

There are some who, in the plenitude of their folly and 
recklessness, have likened the cause of the blacks to Poland 
and France, and have darkly hinted that the same aspirations 
wdiich the generous heart breathes fur the cause of bleeding, 
suffering Poland and revolutionary France, must be indulged 
for the insurrectionary blacks. And has it come at last to 
this : that the hellish plots and massacres of Dessalines, Ga- 
briel and Xat Turner, are to be compared to the noble deeds 
and devoted patriotism of Lafayette, Kosciusko, and Schry- 
necki ? and we suppose the same logic would elevate Lundy 
and Garrison to niches in the Temple of Fame, by the side of 
Locke and Rousseau. There is an absurdity in this conception, 
which so outrages reason and the most common feelings of 
humanity, as to render it unworthy of serious, patient refuta- 
tion. But we will, nevertheless, for a moment examine it^ 
and shall find, on their own principles, if such reasoners have 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 449 

any principles, that their conception is entirely fallacious. 
The true theory of the right of revolution we conceive to be 
the following : no men, or set of men, are justifiable in attempt- 
ing a revolution which must certainly fail ; or if successful, 
must produce necessarily a much worse state of things than 
the pre-existent order. We have not the right to plunge the 
dagger into the monarch's bosom, merely because he is a 
monarch — we must be sure it is the only means of dethroning 
a tyrant and giving peace and happiness to an aggrieved and 
suffering people. Brutus would have had no right to kill 
Caesar, if he could have foreseen the consequences. If France 
and Poland had been peopled with a race of serfs and degraded 
citizens, totally unfit for freedom and self-government, and 
Lafayette and Kosciusko could have known it, they would 
have been parricides, instead of patriots, to have roused such 
ignorant and unhappy wretches to engage in a revolution, 
whose object they could not comprehend, and which would 
inevitably involve them in all the horrors of relentless carnage 
and massacre. No man has ever yet contended that the 
blacks could gain their liberty and an ascendancy over the 
whites by wild insurrections; no one has ever imagined that 
they could do more than bring clown, by their rash and bar- 
barous achievements, the vengeance of the infuriated whites 
upon their devoted heads. Where, then, is the analogy to 
Poland and to France, — lands of generous achievement, of 
learning, and of high and noble purposes, and with people, 
capable of self-government ? We shall conclude this branch 
of our subject with the following splendid extract from a speech 
of Mr. Canning, which should at least make the rash legislator 
more distrustful of his specifics : 

" In dealing with a negro, we must remember that we are 
dealing with a being possessing the form and strength of a 
man, but the intellect only of a child. To turn him loose in 
38* 



450 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

the manhood of his physical passions, but in the infancy of 
his uninstr acted reason, would be to raise up a creature re- 
sembling the splendid fiction of a recent romance ; the hero of 
"which constructs a human form with all the physical capa- 
bilities of man, and with the thews and sinews of a giant, but 
being unable to impart to the work of his hands a perception 
of right and wrong, he finds too late that he has only created 
a more than mortal power of doing mischief, and himself re- 
coils from the monster which he has made. What is it we 
have to deal with ? is it an evil of yesterday's origin ? with a 
thing which has grown up in our time ? of which we have 
watched the growth — measured the extent — and which we 
have ascertained the means of correcting or controlling ? No, 
we have to deal with an evil which is the growth of centuries; 
which is almost coeval with the deluge ; which has existed 
under different modifications since man was man. Do gentle- 
men, in their passion for legislation, think, that after only 
thirty years discussion, they can now at once manage as they 
will, the most unmanageable, perhaps, of all subjects ? Or 
do we forget, sir, that in fact not more than thirty years have 
elapsed since we first presumed to approach even the outworks 
of this great question. Do we, in the ardor of our nascent 
reformation, forget that during the ages which this system has 
existed, no preceding generation of legislators has ventured to 
<©uch it with a reforming hand ; and have we the vanity to 
i atter ourselves that we can annihilate it at a blow ? No, sir, 
o ! If we are to do good, it is not to be done by sudden and 
■violent measures." Let the warning language of Mr. Canning 
be attended to in our legislative halls, and all rash and intem- 
perate legislation avoided. We will now proceed to the last 
division of our subject, and examine a little into the injustice 
and evils of slavery, with the view of ascertaining if we are 
really exposed to those dangers and horrors which many seem 
to anticipate in the current of time. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 451 

III. Injustice and Evils of Slavery. — 1st. It is said slavery 
is wrong, in the abstract at least, and contrary to the spirit of 
Christianity. To this we answer as before, that any question 
must be determined by its circumstances, and if, as really is 
the case, we cannot get rid of slavery without producing a 
greater injury to both the masters and slaves, there is no rule 
of conscience or revealed law of God which can condemn us. 
The physician will not order the spreading cancer to be extir- 
pated, although it will eventually cause the death of his patient, 
because he would thereby hasten the fatal issue. So, if slavery 
had commenced even contrary to the laws of God and man, 
and the sin of its introduction rested upon our heads, and it 
was even carrying forward the nation by slow degrees to final 
rum — y e t, if it were certain that an attempt to remove it 
would only hasten and heighten the final catastrophe — that it 
was, in fact, a "vulnus immedicabile " on the body politic 
which no legislation could safely remove, then we would not 
only not be found to attempt the extirpation, but we would 
stand guilty of a high offence in the sight of both God and 
man, if we should rashly make the effort. "But the original 
sin of introduction rest not on our heads, and we shall soon 
see that all those dreadful calamities which the false prophets 
of our day are pointing to, will never, in all probability, occur. 
With regard to the assertion that slavery is against the spirit 
of Christianity, we are ready to admit the general assertion, 
but deny most positively, that there is any thing in the Old or 
New Testament, which would go to show that slavery, when 
once introduced, ought at all events to be abrogated, or that 
the master commits any offence in holding slaves. The child- 
ren of Israel themselves were slaveholders, and were not con- 
dom iied for it. All the patriarchs themselves were slaveholders ; 
Abraham had more than three hundred ; Isaac had a " great 



452 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

store " * of them ; and even the patient and meek Job himself 
had " a very great household." When the children of Israel 
conquered the land of Canaan, they made one whole tribe 
" hewers of wood and drawers of water," and they were at that 
very time under the special guidance of Jehovah ; they were 
permitted expressly to purchase slaves of the heathen, and keep 
them as an inheritance for their posterity ; and even the child- 
ren of Israel might be enslaved for six years. When we turn 
to the New Testament, we find not one single passage at all 
calculated to disturb the conscience of an honest slaveholder. 
No one can read it without seeing and admiring that the 
meek and humble Saviour of the world in no instance meddled 
with the established institutions of mankind ; he came to save 
a fallen world, and not to excite the black passions of men, 
and array them in deadly hostility against each other. From 
no one did he turn away ; his plan was offered alike to all — 
to the monarch and the subject, the rich and the poor, the 
master and the slave. He was born in the Roman world — 
a world in which the most galling slavery existed, a thousand 
times more cruel than the slavery in our own country ; and 
yet he no where encourages insurrection ; he no where fosters 
discontent; but exhorts always to implicit obedience and 
fidelity. W T hat a rebuke does the practice of the Redeemer 
of mankind imply upon the conduct of some of his nominal 
disciples of the day, who seek to destroy the contentment of 
the slaves, to rouse their most deadly passions, to break up 
the deep foundations of society, and to lead on to a night of 
darkness and confusion ! " Let every man [says Paul] abide 
in the same calling wherein he is called. Art thou called 
being a servant ? care not for it ; but if thou mayest be made 

* And the man (Isaac) waxed great and went forward, and grew 
until lie became very great ; for he had possession of flocks, and pos- 
session of herds, and great store of servants. — (Genesis chap, 26.) 



PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 



453 



free, use it rather."— (1 Corinth, vii. 20, 21.) Again : " Let 
as many servants as are under the yoke, count their own mas- 
ters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doc- 
trines be not blasphemed; and they that have believing 
masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren, 
but rather do them service, because they are faithful and be- 
loved partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort." 
—(1 Tim. vi. 1, 2.) Servants are even commanded in Scrip- 
ture to be faithful and obedient to unkind masters. " Servants," 
(says Peter,) " be subject to your masters with all fear ; not 
only to the good and gentle, but to the froward. For what 
glory is it if when ye shall be buffeted for your faults ye take 
it patiently ; but if when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take 
it patiently, this is acceptable with God. 1 — (1 Peter,\\. 18, 20.) 
These and many other passages in the New Testament, most 
convincingly prove, that slavery in the Roman world was no 
where charged as a fault or crime upon the holder, and every 
where is the most implicit obedience enjoined. * 

We beg leave, before quitting this topic, to address a few 
remarks to those who have conscientious scruples about the 
holding of slaves, and therefore consider themselves under an 
obligation to break all the ties of friendship and kindred— dis- 
solve all the associations of happier days, to flee to a land 
where this evil does not exist. We cannot condemn the con- 
scientious actions of mankind, but we must be permitted to 
say, that if the assumption even of these pious gentlemen be 
correct, we do consider their conduct as very unphilosophical ; 
and we will go further still : we look upon it as even immoral 
upon their own principles. Let us admit that slavery is an 
evil, and what then ? Why, it has been entailed upon us by 
no fault of ours, and must we shrink from the charge which 

* See Epliesians, vi. 5, Titus ii. 9, 10. Philemon, Colossians, iii. 
22, and iv. 1. 



454 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

devolves upon us, and throw the slave in consequence into the 
hands of those who have noscruples of conscience — those who 
will not perhaps treat him so kindly ? No ! this is not philo- 
sophy, it is not morality ; we must recollect that the unprofit- 
able man was thrown into utter darkness. To the slaveholder 
has truly been entrusted the five talents. Let him but recol- 
lect the exhortation of the Apostle — " Masters, give unto your 
servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also 
h:i\c a master in heaven ;" and in the final day he shall have 
nothing on this score with which his conscience need be smit- 
ten, and he may expect the welcome plaudit — "Well done 
thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a 
few things, I will make thee ruler over many things ; enter 
thou into the joy of thy Lord." Ilallam, in his History of the 
Middle Ages, says, that the greatest moral evil flowing from 
monastic establishments, consisted in withdrawing the good and 
religious from society, and leaving the remainder unchecked 
and unrestrained in the pursuit of their vicious practices. 
Would not such principles as those just mentioned lead to a 
similar result? AVe cannot, therefore, but consider them as 
whining and sickly, and highly unphilosophical and detrimen- 
tal to society. 

2dly. But it is further said that the moral effects of slavery 
are of the most deleterious and hurtful kind ; and as Mr. Jef- 
ferson has given the sanction of his great name to this charge, 
we shall proceed to examine it with all that respectful defer- 
ence to which every sentiment of so pure and philanthropic a 
heart is justly entitled. 

" The whole commerce between master and slave," says he, 
"is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions ; the 
most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degra- 
ding submission on the other. Our children see this, and 
learn to imitate it, for man is an imitative animal — this quali- 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 40 & 

ty is the germ of education in him. From his cradle to his 
grave, he is learning what he sees others do. If a parent had 
no other motive, either in his own philanthropy or self-love, 
for restraining the intemperance of passion towards his slave, 
j it should always be a sufficient one that his child is present. 
I But generally it is not sufficient. The parent storms, the child 
' looks & on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same 
airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to his worst 
| of passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in 
the worst of tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious 
peculiarities."* Now we boldly assert that the tact does not 
bear Mr. Jefferson out in his conclusions. He has supposed 
the master in a continual passion— in the constant exercise of 
the most odious tyranny, and the child, a creature of imita- 
tion, looking on and learning. But is not this master some- 
times kind and indulgent to his slaves? Does he not mete 
out to them, for faithful service, the reward of his cordial ap- 
probation 3 Is it not his interest to do it \ and when thus act- 
ing humanely, and speaking kindly, where is the child, the 
creature of imitation, that he does not look on and learn I We 
may rest assured, in this intercourse between a good master 
and his servant, more good than evil may be taught the child ; 
;he exalted principles of morality and religion may thereby 
be sometimes indelibly inculcated upon his mind, and instead 
»f being reared a selfish contracted being, with nought but 
self to look to— he acquires a more exalted benevolence, a 
greater generosity and elevation of soul, and embraces for the 
sphere of his generous actions a much wider field. Look to 
the slaveholding population of our country, and you every 
where find them characterized by noble and elevated senti- 
ments, by humane and virtuous feelings. We do not find 
among them that cold, contracted, calculating selfishness, which 
* Jefferson's Notes on Virginia. 



456 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

withers and repels every thing around it, and lessens or de- 
stroys all the multiplied enjoyments of social intercourse. Go 
into our national councils, and ask for the most generous, the 
most disinterested, the most conscientious, and the least un- 
just and oppressive in their principles, and see whether the 
slaveholder will be past by in the selection. Edwards says 
that slavery in the West Indies seems to awaken the laudable 
propensities of our nature, such as, " frankness, sociability, be- 
nevolence and generosity. In no part of the globe is the vir- 
tue of hospitality more prevalent than in the British sugar 
islands. The gates of the planter are always open to the re- 
ception of his guests — to be a stranger is of itself a sufficient 
introduction." 

Is it not a fact, known to every man in the south, that the 
most cruel master are those who have been unaccustomed to 
slavery. It is well known that northern gentlemen who mar- 
ry southern heiresses, are much severer masters than south- 
ern gentlemen.* And yet, if Mr. Jefferson's reasoning were 
correct, they ought to be milder : in fact, it follows from his 
reasoning, that the authority which the father is called on to 
exercise over his children, must be seriously detrimental ; and 
yet we know that this is not the case ; that on the contrary, 
there is nothing which so much humanizes and softens the 
heart, as this very authority ; and there are none, even among 
those who have no children themselves, so disposed to pardon 
the follies and indiscretion of youth, as those who have seen 
most of them, and suffered greatest annoyance. There may 
be many cruel masters, and there are unkind and cruel fathers 
too ; but both the one and the other make all those around 

* A similar remark is made by Ramsay, and confirmed by Bryant 
Edwards, in regard to the "West Indies. Adventurers from Europe 
are universally more cruel and morose towards the slaves, than the 
Creole or native West Indian. (Hist of "W. I. Book 4, Chap. I.) 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 45*7 

them shudder with honor. We are disposed to think that 
their example in society tends rather to strengthen than weak- 
en the principle of benevolence and humanity. 

Let us now look a moment to the slave, and contemplate 
his position. Mr. Jefferson has described him as hating, rather 
than loving his master, and as losing, too, all that amor patrice 
which characterizes the true patriot. We assert again, that 
Mr. Jefferson is not borne out by the fact. We are well con- 
vinced that there is nothing but the mere relations of hus- 
band and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, which 
produce a closer tie, than the relation of master and servant.* 
We have no hesitation in affirming, that throughout the whole 
slaveholding country, the slaves of a good master are his 
warmest, most constant, and most devoted friends ; they have 
been accustomed to look up to him as their supporter, director • 
and defender. Every one acquainted with southern slaves, 
knows that the slave rejoices in the elevation and prosperity 
of his master ; and the heart of no one is more gladdened at 
the successful debut of young master or miss on the great 
theatre of the world, than that of either the young slave who 
has grown up with them, and shared in all their sports, and 
even partaken of all their delicacies— or the aged one who has 
looked on and watched them from birth to manhood, with the 
kindest and most affectionate solicitude, and has ever met from 
them all the kind treatment and generous sympathies of feel- 
ing, tender hearts. Judge Smith, in his able speech on Foote's 
Kesolutions, in the Senate, said, in an emergency, he would 
rely upon his own slaves for his defence — he would put arms into 
their hands, and he had no doubt they would defend him 
faithfully. In the late Southampton insurrection, we know 

* There are hundreds of slaves in the southern country who will de- 
sert parents, wives or husbands, brothers and sisters, to follow a kind 
master— so strong is the tie of master and slave. 
39 



458 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

that many actually convened their slaves and armed tliem for 
defence, although slaves were here the cause of the evil which 
was to be repelled. We have often heard slaveholders affirm 
that they would sooner rely upon their slaves' fidelity and at- 
tachment in the hour of dangeT and severe trial, than on any 
other equal number of individuals; and we all know, that the 
son or daughter, who has been long absent from the parental 
roof, on returning to the scenes of infancy never fails to be 

ted with the kindest welcome and the most sincere and 
heartfelt congratulations from those slaves among whom he 
has been reared to manhood. 

Gilbert Stuart, in his History of Society, says that the time 
when the vassals of the I' udal ages was most faithful, most 

lient, and most interested in the welfare of his master, was 
precisely when his dependence was most complete, and when, 
quently, he relied upon his lord for everything. When 
the feudal tenure was gradually changing, and the law was 
interposing between landlord and tenant, the close tie between 
them began to dissolve, and with it, the kindness on one side, 
and the affection and gratitude on the other, waned and van- 
ished. From all this, we are forced to draw one important 
inference — that it is dangerous to the happiness and well-being 
of the slave, for either the imprudent philanthropist to attempt 
to interpose too often, or the rash legislator to obtrude his re- 
gulating ediets, between master and slave. They only serve 
to render the slave more intractable and unhappy, and the 
master more cruel and unrelenting. The British West India 
l>iand- form at this momenta mosl striking illustration of this 
remark; the law lias interposed between master and servant, 
and the sl; 1V e has been made idle and insolent, and conse- 

atly worthless; a vague and irrational idea of liberty 

D infused into his mind ; he has become restless and un- 
happy ; and the planters are deserting the islands, because 



moFESSon dew on slavery. 450 

the very law itself is corrupting and ruining the slave. The 
price of slaves, it is said, since the passage of those law*, has 
fallen fifty per cent., and the rapid declension of the number 
of slaves, proves that their condition has been greatly injured, 
instead of benefited. This instance is fraught with deep in- 
struction to the legislator, and should make him pause. And 
we call upon the reverend clergy, whose examples should be 
pure, and whose precepts should be fraught with wisdom and 
prudence, to beware, lest in their zeal for the black, they suf- 
fer too much of the passion and prejudice of the human heart 
to meddle with those pure principles by which they should be 
governed. Let them beware of " what spirit they are of. 1 ' 
" No sound," says Burke, " ought to be heard in the church, 
but the healing voice of christian charity. Those who quit 
their proper character, to assume what does not belong to them, 
are for the most part ignorant of the character they assume, 
and of the character they leave off. Wholly unacquainted 
with the world in which they are so fond of meddling, and m- 
experieneed in all its affairs, on which they pronounce with so 
much confidence, thev have nothing of politics but the pas- 
sions thev excite. Surely the church is a place where one 
day's truce ought to be allowed to the dissensions and animosi- 
ties of mankind." 

In the debate in the Virginia Legislature, no speaker insinu- 
ated even, we believe, that the slaves in Virginia were not 
treated kindly ; and all, too, agree that they were most abun- 
dantly fed ; and we have no doubt but that they form the hap- 
piest portion of our society. A merrier being does not exist on 
the face of the globe, than the negro slave of the U. States. 
Even Captain Hall himself, with his thick « crust of preju- 
dice," is obliged to allow that they are happy and contented, 
and the master much less cruel than is generally imagined. 
Why, then, since the slave is happy, and happiness is the great 



460 PROFESSOR DEYv" OS SLAVERY. 

object of all animated creation, should we endeavor to disturb 
bis contentment by infusing into bis mind a vain and in dew 
nit.- desire for liberty — a sum. 'tiling which he cannot compre- 
hend, and which must inevitably dry up the very sources of 
bis happiness. 

The fact is that all of us, and the great author of the Decla- 
ration of Independence is like us in this respect, are too prone 
to judge of the happiness of others by ourselves — we make 
self the standard, and endeavor to draw down every one to 
its dimensions — not recollecting that the benevolence of the 
Omnipotent has made the mind of man pliant and susceptible 
of happiness in almost every situation and employment W<i 
might rather die than be the obscure slave that waits at our 
back — our education and our habits generate an ambition that 
makes us aspire at something loftier — and disposes us to loop 
upon the slave as unsusceptible of happiness in his humble 
sphere, when he may indeed be much happier than we are, 
and have his ambition too; but his ambition is to excel all his 
other slaves in the performance of bis servile duties — to please 
and to gratify his master— and to command the praise of all 
who witness his exertions. Let the wily philanthropist but 
cme and whisper into the ears of such a slave that his situa- 
tion is degrading and his lot a miserable one — let him but 
light up the dungeon in which he persuades the slave that he 
is caged — and that moment, like the serpent that entered the 
garden of Eden, he destroys his happiness and his usefulness. 
"We cannot, therefore, agree with Mr. Jefferson, in the opinion 
that slavery makes the unfeeling tyrant and ungrateful depen- 
dant ; and in regard to Virginia especially, we are almost dis- 
posed, judging from the official returns of crimes and convic- 
tions, to assert, with a statesman who has descended to his 
tomb, (Mr. Giles,) " that the whole population of Virginia, 
consisting of three castes — of free white, free colored, and slave 



PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 461 

colored population, is the soundest and most moral of any 
other, according to numbers, in the whole world, as far as is 
known to me." 

3dly. It has been contended that slavery is unfavorable to a 
republican spirit ; but the whole history of the world proves 
that this is far from being the case. In the ancient republics 
of Greece and Rome, where the spirit of liberty glowed with 
most intensity, the slaves were more numerous than the free- 
men. Aristotle, and the great men of antiquity, believed sla- 
very necessary to keep alive the spirit of freedom. In Sparta, 
the freemen were even forbidden to perform the offices of 
slaves, lest he might lose the spirit of independence. In mo- 
dern times, too, liberty has always been more ardently desired 
by slaveholding communities. " Such " says Burke, " were our 
Gothic ancestors ; such, in our days, were the Poles ; and such 
will be all masters of slaves who are not slaves themselves." 
" These people of the southern (American) colonies are much 
more strongly, and with a higher and more stubborn spirit, at- 
tached to liberty, than those of the northward." And from 
the time of Burke down to the present day, the Southern 
States have always borne the same honorable distinction. 
Burke says, "it is because freedom is to them not only an en- 
joyment, but a kind of rank and privilege." Another, and 
j erhaps more efficient cause of this, is the perfect spirit of 
equality so prevalent among the whites of all the slaveholding 
States. Jack Cade, the English reformer, wished all mankind to 
be brought to one common level. We believe slavery in the U. 
States has accomplished this, in regard to the whites, as near- 
ly as can be expected or even desired in this world. The me- 
nial and low offices being all performed by the blacks, there is 
at once takeu away the greatest cause of distinction and sepa- 
ration of the ranks of society. The man to the north will not 
shake hands familiarly with his servant, and converse, and 
39* 



462 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

laugh and dine with him, no matter how honest and respecta- 
ble he may be. But go to the south, and you will find that 
no white man feels such inferiority of rank as to be unworthy 
of association with those around him. Color alone is hen 
the badge of distinction, the true mark of aristocracy, and all 
who are white are equal in spite of the variety of occupation. 
The same thing is observed in the West Indies. u Of the 
character common to the white resident of the West Indies, it 
appears to me," says Edwards, "that the leading feature is an 
independent spirit, and a display of conscious equality through- 
out all ranks and conditions. The poorest white person seems 
to consider himself nearly on a level with the richest ; and em- 
boldened by this idea, approaches his employer with extended 
hand, and a freedom which, in the countries of Europe, is sel- 
dom displayed by men in the lower orders of life towards their 
superiors." And it is this spirit of equality which is both the 
generator and preserver of the genuine spirit of liberty. 

4thly. Insecurity of the <rh'<hs y arising from plots, insur- 
rections, <(•'•., among tin blacks. This is the evil, after all, let 
us say what we will, which really operates most powerfully 
upon the schemers and emancipating philanthropists of those 
sections where slaws constitute the principal • roperty. Now, 
if we have shown, as we trust we have, that the scheme of 
deportation is utterly impracticable, and that emancipation, 
with permission to remain, will produce all these horrors in still 
greater degree, it follows that this evil of slavery, allowing it 
to exist in all its latitude, would be no argument fen* legisla- 
tive action, and therefore we might well rest contented with 
this issue ; but as we are anxious to exhibit this whole Bubject in 
its true bearings, and as we do believe that this evil has been 
most strangely and causelessly exaggerated, we have deter- 
mined to examine it a moment, and point out its true extent. 
It seems to us that those who insist most upon it, commit the 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 463 

enormous error of looking- upon every slave in the whole slave- 
holding country as actuated by the most deadly enmity to 
the whites, and possessing all that reckless, fiendish temper, 
which would lead him to murder and assassinate the moment 
the opportunity occurs. This is far from being true ; the 
slave, as we have already said, generally loves the master and 
his family ;* and few indeed there are, who can coldly plot 
the murder of men, women and children ; and if they do, there 
are fewer still who can have the villany to execute. We can 
sit down and imagine that all the negroes in the south have 
conspired to rise on a certain night, and murder all the whites 
in their respective families ; we may suppose the secret to be 
kept, and that they have the physical power to exterminate, 
and yet we may say the whole is morally impossible. No in- 
surrection of this kind can ever occur where the blacks are as 
much civilized as they are in the United States. Savages and 
Koromantyn slaves can commit such deeds, because their 
whole life and education have prepared them ; and they glory 
in the achievement; but the negro of the United States has 
imbibed the principles, the sentiments, and feelings of the 
white ; in one word, he is civilized — at least, comparatively ; 
his whole education and course of life are at war with such 
fell deeds. Nothing, then, but the most subtle and poisonous 
principles, sedulously infused into his mind, can break his al- 
legiance, and transform him into the midnight murderer. Any 
man who will attend to the history of the Southampton mas- 
sacre, must at once see, that the cause of even the partial suc- 
cess of the insurrectionists, was the very circumstance that 
there was no extensive plot, and that Nat, a demented fanatic, 
was under the impression that heaven had enjoined him to 

* We scarcely know a single family, in which the slaves, especially 
the domestics, do not manifest the most unfeigned grief at the deaths 
which occur among the whites. 



4G4r PROFESSOR DETV ON SLAVERY. 

liberate the blacks, and had made its manifestations by loud 
noises in the air, an eclipse, and by the greenness of the sun. 
It was th which determined him, and ignorance and 

superstition, together with implicit confidence in Nat, deter- 
mined a few others, and thus the bloody work began. So 
fearfully and reluctantly did they proceed to the execution, 
that we have no doubt that if Travis, the first attacked, could 
have waked whilst they were getting into his house, or could 
have shot down Nat or Bill, the real would have fled, and the 
all'air would have terminated in //.■. 

We have read with great attention the history of the insur- 
rections in St. Domingo, and have no hesitation in affirming, 
that to the reflecting mind, that whole history affords the mosl 
complete evidence of the difficulty and almost impossibility of 
succeeding in these plots, even under the most favorable cir- 
cumstances. It would almost have been a mora] miracle, if 
that revolution had not succeeded. TIi>' French revolution 
had kindled a blaze throughout the world. The society of the 
Ami T8 t (the friends of the blacks,) in Paris, had edu- 

cated and disciplined many of the mulattoes, who were almost 
as numerous as the whites in the island. The National Assem- 
bly, in its mad career, declared these mulattoes to be equal in 
all respects t > the whites, and gave them the same privileges 
and immunities as the whites. During the ten years, too, im- 
mediately preceding the revolution, more than 200,000 negroes 
were imported into the island from Africa. It is a well known 
fact, that newly imported negroes are always greatly more 
dangerous than those horn among us ; and of those importa- 
tions a very large proportion consisted of Koromaniyn slaves, 
from the Gold Coast, who have all the Bavage ferocity of the 
North American Indian.^' And lastly, the whites themselves, 

••■ It was the Koromantyns who brought about the insurrection in Ja- 
maica, in 1760. They are a very hardy race, and the Dutch, who are 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 465 

disunited and strangely inharmonious, would nevertheless 
have suppressed the insurrections, although the blacks and 
mulattoes were nearly fifteen-fold their numbers, if it bad not 
been for the constant and too fetal interference of France. 
The great sin of that revolution rests on the National Assem- 
bly, and should be an awful warning to every legislature to 
beware of too much tampering with so delicate and difficult a 
Subject, as an alteration of the fundamental relations of society. 
But there is another cause which will render the success of 
the blacks forever impossible in the South, as long as slavery 
exists. Tt is, that in modern times, especially, wealth and 
talent must ever rule over mere physical force. During the 
feudal ages, the vassals never made a settled concerted at- 
tempt to throw off the yoke of the lord or landed proprietor, 
and the true reason was, they had neither property nor talent, 
and consequently the power, under these circumstances, could 
be placed no where else than in the hands of the lords ; but 
so soon as the tiers etat arose, with commerce and manufac- 
tures, there was something to struggle for, and le crise des 
revolutions, (the crisis of revolutions,) was the consequence. 
ISTo connected, persevering, and well concerted movement, 
ever takes place, in modern times, unless for the sake of pro- 
perty. Now, the property, talent, concert, and we may add, 
habit, are all with the whites, and render their continued su- 
periority absolutely certain, if they are not meddled with, no 
matter what may be the disproportion of numbers. We look 
upon these insurrections in the same light that we do the 
murders and robberies which occur in society, and in a slave- 

a calculating, money-making people, and withal the most cruel master 3 
in the world, have generally preferred these slaves, because they might 
be forced to do most work ; but the consequence of their avarice has 
been that they have been more cursed with insurrections than any other 
people in the West Indies. 



406 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

holding State, — they are a sort of substitute for the latter; 
&e robbers and murderers in what are called free State?, are 
generally the poor and needy, who rob for money; n< 
slaves rarely murder or rob for this purpose; they have no 
inducement to doit — the fact is, the whole capital of the 
South is pledged for their maintenance. The present Chief 
Magistrate of Virginia has informed us that he has never 
known of but one single ease in Virginia where negroes mur- 
dered for tli*- Bake of money. Now, there is no doubt, but 
that the common robberies and murders for money, take off, 
in the aggregate, more men, and destroy more property, than 
insurrections among iJie slaves^ the former are the result of 
filed causes eternally at work, the latter of occasional causes 
which are rarely, very rarely, in action. Accordingly, if we 
should look to the whole <>f our southern population, and com- 
pare the average number of deaths, by the hands of assassins, 
with the numbers elsewhere, we would be astonished to find 
them perhaps as few, or fewer, than in any other population 
ef equal amount on the globe. In the city of London there 
is, upon an average, a murder, or a house-breaking and rob- 
bery, every nighl in the year, which is greater than the amount 
of death- by murders, insurrection*, &c, in our whole south- 
ern country; and yet the inhabitant of London walks the 
streets, and sle< ps in perfect confidence, and why should not 
we, who are in fact in much less danger?* These calamities 
in London very properly give rise to the establishment of a 

* We wish that accurate accounts could be published of all the deaths 
which had occurred from insurrections in the United States, Weal In- 
dies, and Smith America, since the establishment <>f slavery ; and that 
these could be compared to the whole population that have lived since 
that epoch, and the number of deaths which occur in other equal 
amounts of population from popular sedition, robberies, &c, and we 
would be astonished to see what little ciut-e we have lur the slightest 
apprehension on this score. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 467 

police, and the adoption of precautionary measures ; and so 
they should in our country, and every where else. And if 
the Virginia Legislature had turned its attention more to this 
Bubject during its last session, we think, with all due defer- 
ence, it would have redounded much more to the advantage 
of the State than the intemperate discussion which was gotten 
np. 

But it is agreed on almost all hands, that the danger of 
insurrection now is not very great ; but a time must arrive, it 
i< supposed by many, when the dangers will infinitely in- 
crease, and either the one or the other race must necessarily 
be exterminated. "I do believe," said one in the Virginia 
Legislature, "and such must be the judgment of every re- 
flecting man, that unless something is done in time to obvi- 
ate it, the day must arrive when scenes of inconceivable horror 
must inevitably occur, and one of these two races of human 
beings will have their throats cut by the other." Another 
gentleman anticipates the dark day when a negro Legislature 
would be in session in the capital of the Old Dominion ! Mr. 
Clay, too, seems to.be full of gloomy anticipations of the future. 
In his colonization speech of 1830, he says, "Already the 
slaves may be estimated at two millions, and the free popula- 
tion at ten ; the former being in the proportion of one to rive 
of tin.- latter. Their respective numbers will probably double 
in periods of thirty-three. In the year 1863, the number of 
the whites will probably be twenty, and of the blacks four 
millions. In 1896, forty and eight; and in the year 1929, 
about a century, eighty and sixteen millions. What mind is 
sufficiently extensive in its reach — what nerve sufficiently 
strong — to contemplate this vast and progressive augmenta- 
tion, without an awful foreboding of the tremendous conse- 
quences." If these anticipations are true, then may we in 
despair sit quietly down by the waters of Babylon, and weep 



468 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

over our lot, for we can never remove the blacks — " Hceret 
lateri lethal is arundo." 

But we have none of these awful forebodings. We do not 
look to the time when the throats of one race must be cut by 
the other ; on the contrary, we have no hesitation in affirm 
ing, and we think we can prove it, too, that in 1929, taking 
Mr. Clay's own statistics, we >hall be much more secure from 
plots and insurrections than we are at this moment It is an 
undeniable fact that, in the increase of population, the power 
and security of the dominant party always increases much 
more than in proportion to the relative augmentation of their 
numbers. < >ne hundred men ran much more easily keep an 
equal number in Bubjection than fifty, and a million would 
rule a million more certainly and Becuroly than any lesser 
number. The dominant can only be overturned by concert 
and harmony among the Bubject party, and the greater the 
relative numbers on both Bides, the more impossible does this 
concert on the part of the subjected become. A police, too, 
of the sain;- relative numbers, is much more efficient amid a 
numerous population than a sparse one. We will illustrate 
by example, which cannot fail to strike ev.eii the most BC< pti- 
cal. Mr, Gibbon supposes that the hundredth man in any 
community is as much as the people can afford to keep in pay 
for the purposes of a police. Now suppose the community be 
only one hundred, then one man alone is the police. J- it 
not evident that the ninety-nine will be able at any moment 
to destroy him, and throw off all restraint '. Suppose the 
community one thousand, then ten will form the police, which 
would have rather a better chance of keeping up order among 
the nine hundred and ninety, than the one in the one hun- 
dred — but still this would be insufficient. Let your commu- 
nity swell to one million, and ten thousand would then form 
the police, and ten thousand troops will strike terror in any 



PROFESSOR DEW OS SLAVERY. 4bJ 

citv on the face of the globe. Lord Wellington lately assert- 
ed in the British Parliament, that Paris, containing a popula- 
tion of a million of sonls, (the most boisterous and ungoverna- 
ble,) never required, before the reign of Louts Philippe, more 
than forty-five hundred troops to keep it in the most perf £ 
subjection. It is this very principle wmch explains the fact 
so frequently noticed, that revolutions are effected much more 
readily in small state, than in large ones. The httle repub- 
lics of Greece underwent revolution almost every month ; he 
dominant party was never safe for a moment. The little 
states of modern Italy have undergone more changes and 
revolutions than all the rest of Europe together, and if foreign 
influence were withdrawn, almost every ship from Europe 
even now, would bring the news of some new ™'« 
those states. If the standing army will remain firm to the 
government, a successful revolution in most large empires as 
Fiance, Germany, and Russia, is almost impossible, ihe two 
revolutions in France have been successful, m consequence of 
the disaffection of the troops, who have joined the populai 

^Llt us apply these principles to our own case ; and for the 
sake of simplicity, we will take a county of a mixed popida- 
t on of twenty thousand, viz., blacks ten thousand, and whites 
1 many :-tlie patrol which they can keep out would, ac- 
col/to our rule, he two hundred ; double both sides, and 
h patrol would be four hundred; quadruple and it would 
b7e Ut hundred-uow, a patrol of eight hundred would be 
Lb more efficient than the two hundred, though they were 
relatively to the numbers kept in order, exactly the same ; and 
the same principle is applicable to the progress o. populaU on 
„ the whl slaveholding country. In 1929, our police won d 
e much more efficient than now, if the two -J-JJ^ 
anything like the same relative numbers. We believe 



470 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 



would be better for the whites that the negro population 
should double, if they added only one-half more to their num- 
bers, than that they should remain stationary on both sides. 
Hence, an insuperable objection to all these deporting schemes 
— they cannot diminish the relative proportion of the blacks 
to the whites, but on the contrary increase it, while they 
check the augmentation of the population as a whole, and 
consequently lessen the security of the dominant party. We 
do not fear the increase of the blacks, for that very increase 
adds to the wealth of society, and enables it to keep up the 
police. This is the true secret of the security of the West In- 
dies and Brazil. In Jamaica, the blacks are eight-fold the 
whites ; throughout the extensive empire of Brazil they are three 
to one. Political prophets have been prophesying for fifty 
years past, that the day would speedily arrive, when all the 
West Indies would be in possession of the negroes ; and the 
danger is no greater now than it was at the commencement. 
We sincerely believe the blacks never will get possession, un- 
less through the mad interference of the mother countries, and 
even then we are doubtful whether they can conquer the 
whites. Now, we have nowhere in the United States the 
immense disproportion between the two races observed in 
Brazil and the West Indies, and we are not like to have it in 
all time to come. We have no data, therefore, upon which 
to anticipate that dreadful crisis, which so torments the ima- 
gination of some. The little islands of the West Indies, if 
such crisis were fated frequently to arrive, ought to exhibit 
one continued series of massacres and insurrections, for their 
blacks are relatively much more numerous than with us, and 
a small extent of territory is, upon the principle just explain- 
ed, much more favorable to successful revolution than a large 
one. Are we not, then, most unphilosophically and needless- 
ly tormenting ourselves with the idea of insurrection— seeing 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 47l 

that the West India Islands, even so much worse off than 
ourselves, are, nevertheless, but rarely disturbed? It is well 
known that where the range is sufficiently extensive, and the 
elements sufficiently numerous, the calculation of chances may 
be reduced to almost a mathematical certainty; thus, al- 
though you cannot say what will be the profit or loss of a 
particular gambling house in Paris on any one night, yet you 
may, with great accuracy, calculate upon the profits for a 
whole year, and with still greater accuracy, for any longer 
period, as ten, twenty, or one hundred years. Upon the same 
principle we speculate with much greater certainty upon 
masses of individuals, than upon single persons. Hence, bills 
of mortality, registers of births, marriages, crimes, &c, become 
very important statistics, when calculated upon large masses 
of population, although they prove nothing in families or 
among individuals. Proceeding upon this principle, we can- 
not fail to derive the greatest consolation from the fact, that 
although slavery has existed in our country for the last two 
hundred years, there have been but three attempts at insur- 
rection — one in Virginia, one in South-Carolina, and, we be- 
lieve, one in Louisiana — and the loss of lives from this cause 
has not amounted to one hundred persons in all. We may 
then calculate in the next two hundred years, upon a similar 
result, which is incomparably smaller than the number which 
will be taken off in free States by murders for the sake of 
money. 

But our population returns have been looked to, and it has 
been affirmed that they show a steady increase of blacks, 
which will* finally carry them in all proportion beyond the 
whites, and that this will be particularly the case in Eastern 
Virginia, We have no fears on this score either ; even if it 
were true, the danger would not be very great. With the 
increase of the blacks, we can afford to enlarge the police ; 



472 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

and we will venture to say, that with the hundredth man at 
our disposal, and faithful to us, we would keep down insur- 
rection in any large country on the face of the globe. But 
the speakers in the Virginia Legislature, in our humble 
opinion, made most unwarrantable inferences from the census 
returns. They took a period between 1790 and 1830, and 
judged exclusively from the aggregate results of the whole 
time. Mr. Brown pointed out their fallacy, and showed that 
there was but a small portion of the period in which the blacks 
had rapidly gained upon the whites, but during the residue 
they were most rapidly losing their high relative increase, 
and would, perhaps, in 1840, exhibit an augmentation less 
than the whites. But let us go a little back. In 1740, the 
slaves in South-Carolina, says Marshall, were three times the 
whites ; the danger from them was greater then than it ever 
has been since, or ever will be again. There was an insurrec- 
tion in that year, which was put down with the utmost ease, 
although instigated and aided by the Spaniards. The slaves 
in Virginia, at the same period, were much more numerous 
than the whites. Now, suppose some of those peepers into 
futurity could have been present, would they not have pre- 
dicted the speedy arrival of the time when the blacks, run- 
ning ahead of the whites in numbers, would have destroyed 
their security ? In 1703, the black population of Virginia 
was 100,000, and the white 70,000. In South-Carolina, the 
blacks were 90,000, and the whites 40,000. Comparing 
these with the returns of 1740, our prophets, could they have 
lived so long, might have found some consolation in the great- 
er relative increase of the whites. Again, when we see in 1830, 
that the blacks in both States have fallen in numbers below 
the whites, our prophets, were they alive, might truly be pro- 
nounced false. (See Holmes' 1 Annals and Marshall's Life of 
Washington, on this subject.) 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 473 

But we "will now proceed to examine more closely the 
melancholy inference which has been drawn from the relative 
advances of the white and black populations in Virginia, 
during the last forty years, and to show upon principles of an 
undeniable character, that it is wholly gratuitous, without any 
well founded data from which to deduce it. During the 
whole period of forty years, Virginia has been pouring forth 
emigrants more rapidly to the West than any other State in 
the Union ; she has indeed been " the fruitful mother of em- 
pires." This emigration has been caused by the cheap, fertile, 
and unoccupied lands of the West, and by the oppressive 
action of the Federal Government on the. southern agricultu- 
ral States. This emigration has operated most injuriously 
upon Virginia interests, and has had a powerful tendency to 
check the increase of the whites, without producing anything 
like an equal effect on the blacks. 

As this is a subject of very great importance, we shall en- 
deavor briefly to explain it. We have already said in the 
progress of this discussion, that the emigration of a class of 
society will not injure the community, or check materially the 
increase of population, where a full equivalent is left in the 
stead of the emigrant. The largest portion of slaves sent out 
of Virginia, is sent through the operation of our internal slave 
trade ; a full equivalent being thus left in place of the slave, 
this emigration becomes an advantage to the State, and does 
not check the black population as much as at first we should 
imagine, because it furnishes every inducement to the master 
to attend to his negroes, to encourage marriage, and to cause 
the greatest possible number to be raised, and thus it affords 
a powerful stimulus to the spring of black population, which, 
in a great measure, counteracts the emigration. But when 
we come to examine into the efflux of the white population 
from our State to the West, we find a totally different case 
40* 



471 PROFESSOR D1TW ON SLAVERY. 

presented to our view. The emigration of the white man not 
only takes a laborer from the State, but capital likewfe 
far, therefore, in this ease, from the State gaining an equiva- 
lent for the emigrant, she not only loses him, but his capital 
also, and thus she is impoverished, or at least advances more 
slowly in the acquisition of wealth, from a double cause — 
from the loss of both persons and capital. 

Let us examine a little more fully, the whole extent of the 
hich the State tints suffers, and we shall find it immea- 
surably beyond our hasty conceptions. In the first place, we 
cannot properly estimate the loss of labor by the number of 
emigrants, for we -must recollect the majority of emigrants 
from among the whites consists of males, who form decidedly 
the more productive sex : and these males are generally be- 
tween eighteen and thirty, precisely that period o\' life at 
which the laborer is most productive, and has ceased to be a 
mere consumer. Up to this period, we are generally an ex- 
pense to those who rear us, and when we leave the State at 
this time, it loses not only the individuals, but all the capital, 
together with interest on that capital, which have been spent 
in rearing and educating. Thus a father has been for years 
spending the whole profits of his estate in educating his sons, 
and so soon as that education is completed they roam off to 
the West. The society of Virginia then loses both the indi- 
viduals and the capital which had been spent upon them, 
without an equivalent. Perhaps a young man, thus educa- 
ted, if he v>ere to remain among us, could make, by the exer- 
cise of his talents, two or three thousand dollars per annum. 
This is more than ten field laborers could make by their labor, 
and consequently the loss of one Such man as above described, 
is equal to the loss of ten common laborers in a politieo- 
mical view, and perhaps to more than one hundred in a 
moral point of view. "We have made some exertion to ascer- 



PROFESf OB ia. BUY. 

tain tbe average annual emigration of whites from the 

but without sik-c.--. Supposing the number to be three 

thousand, and we have no doubt thai it. is far less less than the 

true amount, we would err but little in 

three thousand would be at least equal to twelve thousand 

taken from among mere laborers. 

. v. hat is the effect of this great abstraction from v*ir- 
gmia, of productive citizens and capital 1 Why,mo I 
lv, to prevent the accumulation of wealth, and the increase of 
white population. You will find, on < n, that this 

emigration robs the land of its fair proportion of capital and 
labor, and thus injures our agriculture, and entirely pr< 
all improvements of our lands; it sweej - oil' from the 
the circulating capita] as soon as formed, and leaves scarcely 
any thing of value behind, but lands, negroes and houses. All 
this has a tendency to check the increase of the wbito 
only by the direct lessening of the population by emigration, 
but much more by paralyzing the spring of white population. 
The increase of the blacks, under these circumstances, becomes 
much more- rapid, and has served in part to counteract the 
rious effects springing from the ei of whites. 

In this point of view, the* augmentation of our black popula- 
tion should be a source of consolation, instead of alarm and 
idenc^L Let us now see whether this state of thi 
; to be continued, or whether there be not some 
.as in the political horizon, portending a better and a 
brighter day for the Old Dominion, in the vista of the future. 
There are to - evidently calculated to check thi-, emi- 

gration of capital and citizens from Virginia, and to insure a 
more rapid increase of her white population, and 
tion of her wealth. ] . fir-t, the tilling up of our va- 

cant territory of population : and second, the completion of 
such a system of internal improvement in Virginia, a- 



476 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

administer to the multiplied wants of her people, and take off 
the surplus produce of the interior of the State to the great 
market of the world — the first dependent on time, and the 
second on the energy and enterprise of the State. 

1st. It is very evident, that as population advances and 
overflows our Western territory, all the good lands will be 
gradually occupied ; a longer and a longer barrier of cultiva- 
ted and populous region will be interposed between Virginia 
and cheap Western lands, and with this onward march of 
population and civilization, emigration from the old States 
must gradually cease. The whole population of the Union 
is now 13,000,000 ; in less than fifty years from this time, 
(a short period in the history of nations,) we shall have fifty 
millions of souls — our people will then cease to be migratory, 
and assume that stability every where witnessed in the older 
countries of the World ; and this result will be greatly accele- 
rated, if the southern country shall, in the meantime, be 
relieved from the blighting oppression of federal exactions, 
As this state of things arrives, the whites in Virginia will be 
found to increase more rapidly than the blacks ; and thus, 
that most alarming inference drawn from disproportionate in- 
crease of the two castes, for the last forty years, will be shown, 
in the lapse of time, to be a false vision, engendered by fear, 
and unsupported by 'philosophy and fact. We already per- 
ceive that the whites, in the ratio of their increase, have been, 
for the last twenty years, gradually gaining on the blacks ; 
thus, in 1790, east of the Blue Ridge, the whites were 314,- 
523, and the slaves 277,449 — in 1830, the proportions were, 
in the same district, whites, 375,935 ; slaves, 418,529 ; gain 
of the blacks on the whites, 77,398. "But when did this 
gain take place ?" Between 1800 and 1810, the rate of in- 
crease of the whites was only seven-tenths of one per cent, 
while that of the slaves was eleven per cent. From 1810 to 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 477 

1820, the ratio of the increase of whites was three per cent., 
and that of slaves was six per cent. From 1820 to 1830, the 
ratio of increase of the whites was near eight per cent., and 
that of the slaves not quite nine percent. ; and when we take 
into consideration the whole population of our State, east and 
west of the Blue Ridge, we find that the whites have been 
gaining at the rate of fifteen per cent, for the last ten years, 
while the slaves have been increasing at the rate of ten per 
cent, only — and thus is it we find that those very statistics 
which are adduced by the abolitionists, to alarm the timid, 
and operate on the imagination of the unreflecting, turn out, 
upon closer scrutiny, to be of the most cheering and consola- 
tory character, clearly demonstrating, upon the very principle 
of calculation assumed by the abolitionists themselves, that 
the condition of the whites is rapidly altering for the better, 
with the lapse of time. 

AVe will now proceed to point out the operation of the se- 
cond cause, above mentioned — a judicious system of internal 
improvement in checking emigration to the West. It is well 
known, that in proportion to the facilities which are offered 
to commerce, and the ease and cheapness with which the pro- 
ducts of land may be conveyed to market, so do the profits of 
agriculture rise, and with them, a general prosperity is dif- 
fused over the whole country — new products are raised upon 
the soil — new occupations springing up — old ones are enlarg 
ed and rendered more productive — a wider field is opened for 
the display of the energies of both mind and body, and the 
rising generation are bound down to the scenes of their infan- 
cy, and the homes of their fathers ; not by the tie of affection 
and association alone, but by the still stronger ligament of 
interest. Sons who have spent in their education all the pro- 
fits which a kind father has earned by hard industry on the 
soil, will not now be disposed to wring from his kindness the 



478 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

small patrimony which he may possess, and move off with the 
proceeds to the West ; but general prosperity will induce 
them to remain in the land which gave them birth, to add to 
the wealth and the population of the State, and to be a com- 
fort and a solace to their aged parents in the decline of their 
days. We do, indeed, consider internal improvement in Vir- 
ginia, the great panacea by which most of the ills which now 
weigh down the State may be removed, and health and activ- 
ity communicated to every department of industry. 

We are happy to see that the Legislature of Virginia, dur- 
ing the last session, incorporated a company to complete the 
James River and Kanawha improvements, and that the city 
of Richmond has so liberally contributed by her subscriptions, 
as to render the project almost certain of success. It is this 
great improvement which is destined to revolutionize the finan- 
cial condition of the Old Dominion, and speed her on more 
rapidly in wealth and numbers, than she has ever advanced 
before ; the snail pace at which she has hitherto been crawl- 
ing, is destined to be converted into the giant's stride, and 
this very circumstance, of itself, will defeat all the gloomy 
predictions about the blacks. The first effect of the improve- 
ment will be to raise up larger towns in the eastern portion 
of the State.* Besides other manifold advantages which 

* Dr. Cooper, of Columbia, whose capacious mind has explored 
every department of knowledge, and whose ample experience through 
a long life, has furnished him with the most luminous illustrations 
and facts, has most admirably pointed out in the 25th chapter of his 
Political Economy, the great advantages of large towns, and we have 
no doubt but that the absence of large towns in Virginia, has been one 
cause of the inferiority of Virginia to some of the Northern States, in 
energy and industry. We are sorry that our limits will not allow us 
to insert a portion of the chapter on the advantages of large towns, 
just referred to, and that we must content ourselves with a warm 
recommendation of its perusal. 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 479 

these towns will diffuse, they will have a tendency to draw 
into them the capital and free laborers of the No*rth, and in 
this way to destroy the proportion of the blacks. Baltimore 
is now an exemplification of the fact, which, by its mighty 
agency, is fast making Maryland a non-slaveholding State. 
Again, the rise of cities in the lower part of Virginia, and in- 
creased density of population, will render the division of labor 
more complete, break down the large farms into small ones, 
and substitute, in a great measure, the garden for the planta- 
tion cultivation ; consequently, less slave, and more free labor 
will be requisite, and in due time the abolitionists will find 
this most lucrative system working to their heart's content, 
increasing the prosperity of Virginia, and diminishing the 
evils of slavery, without those impoverishing effects which all 
other schemes must necessarily have. 

Upon the West, particularhj , the beneficial effects of a ju- 
dicious system of improvement, will be almost incalculable, 
At this moment, the emigration from the western and middle 
counties of Virginia, is almost as great as from the eastern. 
The western portion of Virginia, in consequence of its great 
distance from market, and the wretched condition of the va- 
rious communications leading through the State, is necessarily 
a grazing country. A grazing country requires but a very 
sparse population, and consequently, but small additions to 
our western population renders it redurdant, and there is an 
immediate tendency in the supernumeraries to emigration. 
A gentleman from the West lately informed us, that in his 
immediate neighborhood he knew of seventy persons who 
had moved off, and many others were exceedingly anxious to 
go, but were detained because they could not dispose of their 
lands. The remedy for all this is as glaring as the light of 
the mid-day sun. Give to this portion of the State the com- 
munications which they require. Let our great central im- 



480 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

provement be completed, and immediately the grazing system 
will be converted into the grain growing, and the very first 
effect of sticking the plough into the soil, which has hitherto 
grown grass alone, will be an increased demand for labor, 
which will at once check the tide of emigration, so rapidly 
flowing on to the distant West — and agricultural profits will 
rise at once 50 or 100 per cent. One of the most closely 
observant citizens of the West has informed us, that he can 
most conclusively show, that if flour would command $3 a 
barrel, on the farms in his neighborhood, the profits of raising 
grain would be double those of the grazing system. Here, 
then, is the true ground for unity of action, between the east- 
ern and western portion of Virginia ; let them steadily unite 
in pushing forward a vigorous system of internal improve- 
ment. Under what a miserably short-sighted and suicidal 
policy must the West act, then, if it seriously urges the eman- 
cipation of our slaves. The very first effect of it will be, to 
stop forever the great central improvement. Where is the 
State to get the money from, to cut canals and railroads 
through her territory, and send out thousands besides to Af- 
rica ? The very agitation of this most romantic and imprac- 
ticable scheme is calculated to nip in the bud our whole sys- 
tem of internal improvements ; and we can but hope that the 
1 ntelligence of the West will soon discover how very hostile 
this whole abolition scheme is to all its true interests, and will 
curb in their wild career, by the right of instruction, those 
who would uproot the very foundations of society, if their 
schemes should ever be carried out to their full extent. We 
venture to predict, that, if these abolition schemes shall ever 
be seriously studied in Virginia, that there will be but one 
voice — but one opinion concerning them, throughout the 
State — that they are at war with the true interests of Virgi- 
nia, in every quarter — in the West as well as the East. We 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVER Y. 481 

Lope then, most sincerely, that those gentlemen who Lave 
been so perseveringly engaged in urging forward this great 
scheme of improvement, will not falter until the work is ac- 
complished. We are well convinced that they are the true 
benefactors of the State — and they deserve well of the repub- 
lic — and at some day, not very distant, they will have the 
consolation of seeing that the moral effects of this system will 
be no less salutary than the physical. We hope, then, we 
have shown, upon principles which cannot be controverted, 
that the experience of the last forty years in Virginia, need 
not fill us with apprehensions for the future. Time and inter- 
nal improvement will cure all our ills, and speed on the Old 
Dominiou more rapidly in wealth and prosperity. 

Many are most willing to allow the force of the preceding 
i-easoning, and to admit that there is no real danger to be 
apprehended either now, or in future, from our blacks ; and 
yet, they say there is a feeling of insecurity throughout the 
slaveholding country, and this sense of insecnrity destroys our 
happiness. Now, we are most willing to admit that, after 
such an insurrection as that in Southampton, the public mind 
will be disturbed, and alarm and apprehension will pervade 
the community. But the fact proves, that all this is of short, 
vertj short duration. We believe that there was not a single 
citizen in Virginia, who felt any alarm from the negroes, pre- 
vious to the Southampton tragedy, and we believe at this mo- 
ment there are very few who feel the slightest apprehension. 
We have no doubt, paradoxical as it may seem to some, but 
that the population of our slaveholding country enjoys as 
much or more conscious security, than any other people on the 
face of the globe ! You will find throughout the whole slave- 
holuiug portion of Virginia, and we believe it is the same in 
the southern States, generally, that the houses are scarcely 
ever fastened at night, so as to be completely inaccessible to 
41 



482 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

those without, except in towns. This simple fact is demon- 
stration complete of the conscious security of our citizens, ana 
their great confidence in the fidelity of the blacks. There is 
no has peuple, no lower class, on the globe, among whom the 
life of a man is so secure as among the slaves of America, for 
they rarely murder, as we have already seen, for the sake <>' 
money. A negro will rob your hen-roost or your stye, but it is 
rare indeed, that he can ever be induced to murder you. Upon 
this subject we speak from experience. We have sojourned 
in some of the best regulated countries of Europe, and we 
know that every where the man of property dares not close 
his eyes before every window and door are barred against in- 
truders from without. And, we believe, even in our northern. 
States, these precautions are adopted to a much greater extent 
than with us ; and, consequently, mark a much greater sense 
of insecurity than exists among us. 

Sthly, and lastly. Slave labor is unproductive, and the 
distressed condition of Virginia and the whole South is owing 
to this cause. Our limits will not allow us to investigate fully 
this assertion, but a very partial analysis will enable us to 
show that the truth of the general proposition upon which the 
conclusion is based, depends on circumstances, and that those 
circumstances do not apply to our southern country. The 
ground assumed by Smith and Storch, who are the most able 
supporters of the doctrine of the superior productiveness of 
free labor, is that each one is actuated by a desire to accumu - 
late when free, and this desire produces much more efficient 
and constant exertions than can possibly be expected from the 
feeble operation of fear upon the slave. We are, in the main, 
converts to this doctrine, but must be permitted to limit it by 
some considerations. It is very evident, when Ave look to the 
various countries in which there is free labor alone, that a vast 
difference in its productiveness is manifested. The English 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 483 

operative Ave are disposed to consider the most productive 
laborer in the world, and the Irish laborer, in his immediate 
neighborhood, is not more than equal to the southern slave — 
the Spanish and even Italian laborers are inferior. Now, how 
are we to account for this great difference 2 It will be found 
mainly to depend upon the operation of two great principles, 
and secondarily upon attendant circumstances. These two 
principles are the desire to accumulate and better our condi- 
tion, and a desire to indulge in idleness and inactivity. 

We have already seen that the principle of idleness triumph- 
ed over the desire for accumulation among the savag 
North and South America, among the African nations, amono- 
the blacks of St. Domingo, &c, and nothing but the strong- 
arm of authority could overcome its operation. In southern 
countries idleness is very apt to predominate, even under the 
most favorable circumstances, over the desire to accumulate, 
and slave labor, consequently, in such countries, is most pro- 
ductive. Again, staple growing States are cceteris paribus, 
more favorable to slave labor than manufacturing States. 
Slaves in such countries may be worked by bodies under the 
eye of a superintendent, and made to perform more labor 
than freemen. There is no instance of the successful cultiva- 
tion of the sugar cane by free labor. St. Domingo, once the 
greatest sugar growing island in the world, makes now scarce- 
ly enough for her own supply. We very much doubt even 
whether slave labor be not best for all southern agricultural 
countries. Humboldt, in his New Spain, says he doubts 
whether there be a plant on the globe so productive as the 
banana, and yet these banana districts, strange to tell, are the 
poorest and most miserable in all South America, bi 
the people only labor a little to support themselves, and spend 
the rest of their time in idleness. There is no doubt but 
slave labor would be, the most productive kind in these dis- 



484 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

tricts. We doubt whether the extreme south of the United 
States, and the West India Islands, would ever have been cul- 
tivated to the same degree of perfection as now, by any other 
than slave labor. The history of colonization furnishes no ex- 
ample whatever, of the transplantation of whites to very warm 
or tropical latitudes without signal deterioration of character, 
attended with an unconquerable aversion to labor. And it 
would seem, that nothing but slavery can remedy this other- 
wise inevitable tendency. The fact, that to the North, negro 
slavery has every where disappeared, whilst to the South it 
has maintained its ground triumphantly against five labor, is 
of itself conclusive of the superior productiveness of slave labor 
in southern latitudes. We believe that Virginia and Mary- 
land are too far North for slave labor, but all the States to the 
South of these are, perhaps, better adapted to slave labor than 
free. 

But it is said, with the increasing density of population, 
free labor becomes cheaper than slave, and finally extinguish- 
es it, as has actually happened in the west of Europe ; this, 
we are ready to admit, but think it was owing to a change in 
the tillage, and rise of manufactures and commerce, to which 
free labor alone is adapted. As a proof of this, we can cite 
the populous empire of China, and the Eastern nations, gene- 
rally, where slave labor has stood its ground against free labor, 
although the population is denser, and the proportional means 
of subsistence more scanty than any where else on the face of 
the globe. How is this to be accounted for, let us ask? Does 
it not prove, that under some circumstances, slave labor is as 
productive as free? We would as soon look to China to test 
this principle, as any other nation on earth. The slave dis- 
tricts in China, according to the report of travellers, are deter- 
mined by latitude and agricultural products. The wheat 
growing districts have no slaves, but the rice, cotton, and sugar- 



PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 485 

growing districts, situated in warm climates, have all of them 
slaves, affording a perfect exemplification of the remarks above 
made. Again, looking to the nations of antiquity, if the 
Scriptural accounts are to be relied on, the number of inhabi- 
tants of Palestine must have been more than 6,000,000 ; at 
which rate, Palestine was at least, when taking into conside- 
ration her limited territory, five times as populous as England.* 
Now, we know the tribes of Judah and Israel both used slave 
labor, and it must have been exceedingly productive ; for, we 
find the two Kings of Judah and Israel bringing into the field 
no less than 1,200,000 chosen men ;f and Jehosaphat, the son 
of Asa, had an army consisting of 1,160,000 tf and what a 
prodigious force must he have commanded, had he been sov- 
ereign of all the tribes. Nothing but the most productive 
labor could ever have supported the immense armies which 
were then led into the field. _ ^ — ^w*- 

Wallace thinks that ancien«^figypfiiiii..L h\UL buen thrice 
as populous as England ; and yet so valuable was slave labor, 
that ten of the most dreadful plagues that ever affected man- 
kind, could not dispose the selfish heart of Pharoah to part 
with' his Israelitish slaves; and when he lost them, Egypt 
sunk, never to rise to her pristine grandeur again. Ancient 
Italy, too, not to mention Greece, was exceedingly populous, 
and perhaps Rome was alarger city than any of modern times ; 
and yet slave labor supported these dense populations, and 
even rooted out free labor. All these examples prove suffi- 
ciently, that under certain circumstances, slave is as produc- 
tive, and even more productive, than free labor. 

But the Southern States, and particularly Virginia, have 
been compared with the non-slaveholding States, and pronounc- 

* See Wallace on the Numbers of Mankind, p. 52, Edin. editioa 

\ 2d. CI imn. xiii. 3. 

\ 2d. Chron. xvii. 
41* 



486 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

ed far behind them in the general increase of wealth and pop- 
ulation ; and this, it is said, is a decisive proof of the inferior- 
ity of slave labor in this country. We are sorry that we 
have not space for a thorough investigation of this assertion, 
but we have no doubt of its fallacy. Look to the progress of 
the colonies before the establishment of the Federal Govern- 
ment, and you find that the slaveholding were the most pros- 
perous and the most wealthy. The North dreaded the form- 
ation of the confederated government,, precisely because of its 
poverty. This is an historical fact. It stood to the South, as 
Scotland did to England at the period of the Union ; and 
feared lest the South, by its superior wealth, supported by this 
very slave labor, all of a sudden, has become so unproductive, 
should abstract the little wealth which it possessed. Again, 
look to the exports at the present time of the whole confede- 
racy, and what do we see ? Why, that one-third of the 
States, and those slaveholding too, furnish two-thirds of the 
whole exports ! But although this is now the case, we are 
still not prosperous. Let us ask, then, two simple questions : 
1st. How came the South, for two hundred years, to prosper 
with her slave labor, if so very unproductive and ruinous ? 
And 2dly. How does it happen, that her exports are so 
great, even now, and that her prosperity is, nevertheless, on 
the decline ? Painful as the accusation may be to the heart 
of the true patriot, we are forced to assert, that the unequal 
operation of the Federal Government has principally achieved 
it. The North has found that it could not compete with the 
South in agriculture, and has had recourse to the system on 
duties, for the purpose of raising up the business of manufac- 
tures. This is a business in which the slave labor cannot com- 
pete with northern, and in order to carry this system through, 
a coalition has been formed with the West, by which a largo 
portion of the Federal funds are to be spent in that quarter 



PROFESSOR DEW OST SLAVERY. 487 

for internal improvements. These duties act as a discourage- 
ment to southern industry, which furnishes the exports by 
which the imports are purchased, and a bounty to northern 
labor, and the partial disbursements of the funds, increase the 
pressure on the South to a still greater degree. It is not slave 
labor, then, which has produced our depression, but it is the 
action of the Federal Government which is ruining slave labor. 
There is, at this moment, an exemplification of the destruc- 
tive influence of government agency in the West Indies. The 
British West India Islands are now in a more depressed con- 
dition than any others, and both the Edinburgh and London 
Quarterly Reviews charge their depression upon the regula- 
tions, taxing sugar, coffee, <fec, and preventing them, at the 
same time, from purchasing bread stuffs, &c, from the United 
States, which can be furnished by them cheaper than from 
any other quarter. Some of the philanthropists of Great 
Britain cry out it is slavery which has done it, and the slaves 
must be liberated ; but they are at once refuted by the fact, 
that never has an island flourished more rapidly than Cuba, in 
their immediate neighborhood. xVnd Cuba flourishes because 
she enjoys free trade, and has procured, of late, plenty of 
slaves. It is curious that the population of this island has, 
for the last thirty years, kept pace with that of Pennsylvania, 
one of the most flourishing of the States of the confederacy, 
and her wealth has increased in a still greater ratio.* Look 
again to Brazil, perhaps at this moment the most prosperous 
state of South America, and we find her slaves three times 
more numerous than the freemen. Mr. Brougham, in his 
Colonial Policy, says that Cayenne never flourished as long as 
she was scantily supplied with slaves, but her prosperity com- 
menced the moment she was supplied with an abundance of 

* See some interesting statistics concerning this island in Mr. Poin- 
sett's Notes on Mexico. 



488 PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 

this unproductive labor. Now we must earnestly ask an ex- 
planation of these phenomena, upon the principle that slave 
labor is unproductive. 

There are other causes, too, which have operated in concert 
with the Federal Government, to depress the South. The cli- 
mate is unhealthy, and upon average, perhaps one- tenth of 
the labor is suspended during the sickly months. There is a 
great deal of travelling, too, from this cause to the North, which 
abstracts the capital from the South, and spreads it over the 
North. The emigration from the South to the West, as we have 
before seen, is very great and very injurious; and added to all 
this, the standard of comfort is much higher in the slaveholding 
than the non-slaveholding States/'- All these circumstances 
together, are sufficient to account for the depressed condition 
of the South, without asserting that slave labor is valueless. 

* In the Virginia debate, it was said that the slow progress of the 
Virginia population was a most unerring symptom of her want of pros- 
perity, and the inefficacy of shive labor. Now we protest against this 
criterion, unless wry cautiously applied. Ireland suffers more from 
want and famine than any other country in Europe, and yet her popu- 
lation advances almost as rapidly as ours, and it is this very increase 
which curses the country with the plague or famine. In the High- 
lands of Scotland, thev have a very sparse population, scarcely increas- 
ing at all ; and yet they are much better fed, clothed, Ac, than in 
Ireland. Malthns has proved, that there are two species of checks 
which repress redundant populations — positive and preventive. It is 
the latter which keeps down the Scotch population ; while the former, 
always accompanied with misery, keeps down the Irish. We believe, 
at this time, the preventive cheeks are in full operation in Virginia. 
The people of this .State live much better than the same classes to 
the North, aud they will not get married unless there is a prospect of 
maintaining their families in the same style they have been accustomed 
to live in. We believe the preventive checks may commence their 
operation too soon for the wealth of a State, but they always mark a 
high degree of civilization — so that the slow progress of population in 
Virginia turns ottt be her highest eulogy. 



PROFESSOR DEW OX SLAVERY. 



489 



But we believe all other causes as " dust in the balance," 
when compared with the operation of the Federal Govern- 
ment. 

How does it happen that Louisiana, with a greater propor- 
tional numbers of slaves than any other State in the Union, 
with the most insalubrious climate, with one-fourth of her 
white population spread over the more northern States in the 
sickly season, and with a higher standard of comfort than 
perhaps any other State in the Union, is nevertheless one of 
the most rapidly nourishing in the whole southern country ? 
The true answer is, she has been so fortunately situated as to 
be able to reap the fruits of Federal protection. " Midas's 
wand" has touched her, and she has reaped the golden har- 
vest. There is no complaint there of the unproductiveness of 
slave labor. 

But it is time to bring this long article to a close ; it is upon 
a subject which we have most reluctantly discussed ; but, as 
we have already said, the example was set from a higher 
quarter ; the seal has been broken, and we therefore deter- 
mined to enter fully into the discussion. If our positions be 
true, and it does seem to us they may be sustained by reason- 
ing almost as conclusive as the demonstrations of the mathe- 
matician, it follows, that the time for emancipation has not 
yet arrived, and perhaps it never will. We hope, sincerely, 
that the intelligent sons of Virginia will ponder before they 
move — before they enter into a scheme which will destroy 
more than half Virginia's wealth, and drag her down from 
her proud and elevated station among the mean things of the 
earth, — and when, Sampson-like, she shall, by this ruinous 
scheme, be shorn of all her power and all her glory, the p 
Mi-anger may at some future day exclaim, 

The Niobe of nations — there she staiuls, 
"{Friendless and helpless in her voiceless woe." 



/ 

.-/ 

4:»0 PROFESSOR DEW ON SLAVERY. 

Once more, then, do we call upon our statesmen to pause, 
ore they engage in this ruinous scheme. The power of man 
has limits, and he should never attempt impossibilities. We 
do believe it is beyond the power of man to separate the ele- 
ments of our population, even if it were desirable. The deep 
and solid foundations of society cannot be broken up by the 
vain fiat of the legislator. We must recollect that the laws 

Lveurgus were promulgated, the sublime eloquence of De- 

.>sthenes and Cicero was heard, and the glorious achieve- 
of Epaminondas and Scipio were witnessed, in coun- 
tries where slavery existed — without for one moment loosening 
the tic between master and slave. We must recollect, too, 
that Poland has been desolated ; that Kosciusko, Sobieski, 
eki, have fought and bled for the cause of liberty in that 

atry ; that one of her monarchs annulled, in words, the tie 
en master and slave, and yet the order of nature has, 
in the end, vindicated itself, and the dependence between 
r and slave has scarcely for a moment ceased. We 
must recollect, in fine, that our own country has waded 
through two dangerous wars — that the thrilling eloquence of 
the Demosthenes of our land has been heard with rapture, 
exhorting to death, rather than slavery, — that the most libe- 
ral principles have ever been promulgated and sustained, in 
cur deliberate bodies, and before our judicial tribunals — and 
the whole has passed by without breaking or tearing asunder 
the elements of our social fabric. Let us reflect on these 
things, and learn wisdom from experience ; and know thai 
aerated by the lapse of ages, cannot 
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